I Tried so Hard
by lederra
Summary: Opie and Juice's story continues: This is SLASH, so if it is not your sort of thing do not read. WARNING: There will be some adult themes running through this story, some violence and strong language. If you are under 18 do not read! Other warnings will be posted if needed at the beginning of various chapters.
1. Pilot

I Tried so Hard

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the Sons of Anarchy. Only any OC's are mine.

Summary: Opie comes to terms with being bi and how he met Juice.

A/N: This is a reposting of the original story that I had on this site until recently when it was deleted. I will try to keep as much of the original story in it but the sex scenes will not be included. Hints of them will be but not actual scenes.

**WARNING: This story will have some adult themes running through it, if you are under 18 DO NOT read. There will be SLASH! if you do not like slash then please do not read.**

* * *

Opie had been out of prison now for a total of two weeks and he was trying to come to terms dealing with outside life again, being a good father and a loyal husband to Donna whom he had loved since school. However he was also fighting to forget the feelings that had overwhelmed him in prison, he tried telling himself that it had been because there were no women around that he had found himself having inappropiate feelings for some of the other inmates but deep down he knew this was not the case. No matter how much he tried to deny it, he liked men and had always liked men. He found it hard to get rid of those thoughts, he had always been taught by his father and the other adults that had helped to raise him that such thoughts were bad and wrong but despite all the times he had tried to deny it he couldn't.

He knew he loved Donna, that he knew without hesitation and it distressed him that he could not stop thinking about some of the men that he found attractive. First off, growing up there had been Jax, they were much more than best friends, they were also as close as siblings but Opie had never been able to tell Jax how he really felt, he just knew that jax would not understand despite how close they were and his dad, his dad would have gone mad and thrown him out, that he knew for sure. In high school he had felt stirrings for one of the football coaches and that had been the reason why he had taken up football but he had done nothing more than stare at the guy lovingly when he thought that no one noticed. In prison there had been one guy in particular that he had started seeing when he had been in there for about a year and they had been close for a few years but it had only been sex, a way of easing both their fustrations and nothing else. Which was why he was now sat at a bar in Stockton, he would never have entered a bar like this in Charming. Hell he couldn't even see the local town council allowing a bar like this to open in Charming, it was a gay bar and Opie had been sitting here now for about an hour trying to decide whether or not to leave or find a guy for the night when someone caught his eye. It was someone he had never seen before but someone who took his breathe away.

A small latino had just entered the bar, he was dressed in black combats and had a black hoodie on and a baseball cap covering his head and he looked downright sexy as hell with skin the colour of pale caramel. He looked as though he took care of himself, even though the hoodie was a little baggy it was possible to see that the guy had a small waist and what looked like a nice set of muscles underneath. Opie was salivating as he looked across the bar at the guy as he went to the bar and ordered a drink, he noticed that he was not the only one eyeing up the guy and felt himself get angry when he noticed an older guy at the bar siddle up to the latino and start a conversation with him. He saw the latino smiling back at the guy and words were exchanged and then the latino shook his head, 'no', before the guy backed off looking angry. Opie gave a sigh of relief, he returned to his drink and took a mouthful before looking back to where the latino sex god was standing and noticed that he was gone. Looking around the crowded bar Opie couldn't see him and sighed to himself that he had been a fool and should have gone up and talked to him when he had a chance.

"You waiting for someone?"

Opie turned to look at the owner of the sexy voice next to him and felt himself smiling.

"Yeah...You."

xXx

A few weeks later Opie arrived at Teller Morrow and hugged his brother Jax. He had not been to the clubhouse since leaving prison and nothing seemed to be going his way and everything seemed to be going down the pan. The only thing he had enjoyed since leaving prison was the few hours he had spent a few weeks back with a sexy latino who he had met at a bar in Stockton but he had not seen him since and he had tried so hard to forget about him. He had gone back to the bar a couple of times and asked the guy behind the bar if Jaun Carlos had been in but he had said "No." and so Opie had tried to put that amazing night behind him and tried to get on with his life but it had been so hard, he still yearned to meet Jaun Carlos again but he had now got to the stage where he knew he had to get on with his life.

"Hey Opie...Earth to Opie...You're not daydreaming are you?"

Jax was standing in front of him, snapping his fingers and Opie realised he had not heard a word his best friend had said.

"Uhhhh...Sorry man. I was thinking of someone."

"What...Donna?" Jax laughed.

"Yeah." Opie grinned back at him. "What was it you were saying anyway?"

Jax shook his head. "You are impossible you know that mate. I said that we will get Juice to look at the website you want to see if anything can be done."

"Juice?...Whose Juice?"

"Our tech guy, you wouldn't know him he joined as a prospect a few months after you went inside and got patched in as a new member almost four years ago now. Bloody useless at most things but put the guy in front of a computer and he is a bloody genius. I think he is in the clubhouse...Come on, lets go and see."

Opie followed Jax into the clubhouse, he noted that nothing had changed it still looked the same on the whole but there was one thing that was different. Over in the corner on the far side of the room was what looked like a small office space set up and a load of computers and electronic gear and sat at the table hunched over a piece of equipment was a guy, wearing safety goggles who looked like he was soldering a small piece of equipment . As Opie looked closer at the guy he realised one thing about him despite the fact the guy had his back to him he looked familiar and as he raised his head to look at the pair of them when Jax called to him, Opie noticed that he had two tattoos on his head that looked just like the ones that Jaun Carlos had had on his head, two triabal lightning bolts. The tech guy had turned around to face them and as he removed the goggles, Opie found himself looking straight into the eyes of Jaun Carlos.


	2. Seeds

The absolute last person that Opie had thought to meet at the Charming clubhouse had been Jaun Carlos Ortiz, the man that he had spent a memorable few hours with a few weeks back and for the moment he had felt his breathe catch in his throat when Jax introduced Juice, the SAMCRO tech guy to him.

"Juice, this is Opie the member who I was telling you about. Think you can help him out with this techno problem he's got."

As Jax introduced the two men to each other he failed to notice that Opie had stopped breathing for a moment and that Juice had a startled look in his eyes as soon as he looked at Opie. Bobby walked into the room while the introductions were being made and shouted "Hello." to Opie who turned to welcome the older man in a man hug and as he did so Jax took Juice to one side for a quiet word.

"I hope you can help him with his problem, we need to get him back in the club and not half and half. It means a lot to Clay. Understand..."

Juice nodded his understanding to Jax.

"Right I'll leave you two to it then."

As Jax left the room he turned to Juice one last time nodding at Juice and clapped Opie on the shoulder and with Bobby in tow to go and do some club business, they left the two men alone. For a few seconds neither spoke, unsure what to say to the other.

"So this problem you have on the computer, what is it? I'll see if there is anything I can do to help."

Juice had felt it better to get on with the problem at hand and to ignore the other problem that was beginning to rear its ugly head. He knew if the club found out about his sexual preferences the fact that he liked guys and ladies, he would be in a world of trouble, that he did not want although they were not openly homophobic he knew that there were many within the SONS who would not understand and would not even try to understand. They would just strip his patch and that would be the end of a life he had come to love so much.

A couple of hours later the problem that Opie had come to the club with had been sorted out and although it was time for him to leave he found himself not just unable to but also unwilling to leave the company of the smaller man at his side. He knew he should try and ignore the feeling of hope that had begun to blossom in the last few hours that maybe just maybe, he and Juice could continue where they left off but at the same time he started to feel that perhaps Juice did not want to. He smiled to himself, it felt strange thinking of Jaun Carlos as 'Juice' and he wasn't altogether sure if he perferred his nickname to his real name.

"So..." he started to say.

Juice held his hand up and shook his head stopping him from saying whatever else he was about to say. He glanced over to the bar where Tig and Opie's dad were both throwing back shots of tequilla.

"Whatever you are going to say...Here is not the best place for it...Lets go outside we don't want those two hearing us do we?"

Juice said in a low voice and nodded in the direction of the bar and the two older men who at that moment were both looking across at the two younger members.

Opie glanced over at his dad who seemed to be giving him an odd look and agreed with Juice.

"Yeah, lets take this outside."

As they left the clubhouse, Jax pulled into the lot on his motorbike and they noticed the Teller Morrow tow truck pull in next to the garage, Chibs and the prospect jumped out of the truck and went to unhook a car that had a deer through the windscreen.

"Shit, looks like someone was not looking where they were going." Juice muttered and laughed at the same time.

Opie glanced over at him and could not help grinning, he had missed that smile in the last few weeks. He knew he shouldn't be having these thoughts about Juice, hell the guy was a fellow member and brother within the MC and not only that he had Donna and the kids to think of but the more he found himself trying to deny his feelings and the thoughts concerning the smaller man standing at his side laughing at what had been towed into the TM lot, the harder he found it becoming and he found himself wanting to take the younger man into his arms and kiss him again. Juice must have noticed the turmoil that Opie was in because he suddenly turned to him and whispered urgently at him.

"Not here, meet me in my dorm room, last one on the right...ten minutes."

Juice turned and walked back into the clubhouse and Opie watched him as he walked away but before he could follow him, Chibs and Jax walked over to him.

"How's it goin brotha?" Chibs had a huge grin on his face as he walked up to Opie and he had seen a strange look pass quickly over Opie's face when Juice had left him. He thought about asking him about it but decided not to whatever was going on between Juice and Opie was up to them. He wanted no part of it but he thought to himself 'if Opie hurts Juice I'll kill him, Jax's best friend or not.'

"Oh, it's going good...Juice managed to sort out the problem I had online and was going to check something more for me on his laptop but he had to go and put it on recharge in his room, the battery died earlier."

"So why does he not do it in his office space in the main room?" Jax asked curiously. "Just what have you got him looking up?"

Opie looked uncomfortable at Jax's question and for a moment he wondered what he was going to say but a thought quickly came to his mind.

"It's a surprise for Pops but he and Tig are in the bar and you know what Tig's like, he can't keep a surprise to save his life. So Juice is looking it up for me in his dorm room. He said to give him ten minutes and then to go find him."

Jax grinned as he looked at his oldest friend and laughed as he shook his head. He knew all about Opie's sexual preferences and he had seen the looks that Opie had sent towards the smaller man when he had been introduced earlier and although he thought that Juice was straight, he had to admit to himself that he had always noticed that Juice did not sleep around with the sweet butts and crow eaters as much as the other guys but he had always put that down to Juice's natural shyness. Perhaps he thought to himself 'I was wrong and Juice is the same as Opie but as long it does not effect the club I'll keep my suspicions to myself. Looking at his watch he noticed the time.

"Well it has been more than ten minutes, so you had better go and see if he has found what he was looking for."

Before Opie had managed to get to Juice's dorm room Clay called a meeting in the chapel and therefore they were not able to meet up. He had hoped he would have been able to, still he thought to himself 'there is always later on'. As there was no other reason for him to be here now he decided that he would catch up with Juice later on and went home to see his wife and kids.

xXx

Meanwhile in the chapel the club were discussing the events of the past few days, the cabin where they had stored the guns was now nothing but a burned out shell and the evidence that they had pointed to a fellow MC known as the Mayan's. Clay was fuming he wanted retaliation, Jax looked at Juice and instructed him to hack into the local crime databases to get addresses on the Mayans in the system.

Once they had all the information they needed the retaliation was going to happen. Bobby said he would cancel the show he had that weekend to help blow up anything that he needed to be blown but was told that he was going to do no such thing, he had to pay his ex old ladies alimony for the kids and if he did not, the last thing Clay wanted was their lawyers staking out TM to get ahold of Bobby. Tig on the other side of the table looked at Clay before speaking.

"No one blows up shit better than Opie."

Jax shook his head. "Opie's leaning right these days." he informed him and the rest of the club.

Clay growled from his seat at the head of the table.

"Opie is gonna lean whichever way we need him to." pointing his finger at Jax as he continued. "You get him on board."

xXx

The following day Opie was sitting in chapel along with the rest of the members of SAMCRO as they discussed the events of the previous day. Jax's ex wife Wendy had given birth to Jax's son, ten weeks early, thanks in part to overdosing on crank and Jax had gone after the NORD bastard who had sold it to her. Juice meanwhile had found out that the NORDS had a number of meth labs in Lodi and were selling mostly to truckers and Mexie gangs.

Opie was sitting next to his father Piney and found himself again thinking about Juice who sat opposite him, he managed to take a few peeks at him without the others noticing as he listened to him give his report to the club about their targets. Several times under the table he had managed to rub his foot up Juice's leg and managed not to smirk when he noticed Juice jump ever so slightly earlier on when he did it for the first time.

The NOMAD Happy who was sitting next to Juice had noticed the smaller man jump when he happened and at first he had not known the reason for it but then he saw the almost hidden smirk on Opie's face and he secretly watched the interaction that had gone unnoticed between the two men by the other members that sat at the table. Happy frowned he was certain that Opie was married and Juice had a girlfriend, he wondered what they were playing at.

The meeting carried on for a few minutes longer with Clay getting a report from Juice about the status of the NORD that Jax had beaten up.

"Fractured cheek...broken nose...left ball swinging solo," Juice sniggered. Opie across from Juice grinned at Juice's antics as he showed the NORDS ball swinging solo with his finger and laughing at the action hiimself before looking down at the table. The meeting broke up and they all went their seperate ways and finally Opie was able to meet Juice in his dorm room.

xXx

As soon as the door was shut, Opie grabbed Juice and pulled him into a deep hungry kiss, his tongue sliding between Juice's lips, pushing the younger man backwards towards his bed before they both fell down backwards on to it. With Opie ending up on top of Juice, they stayed like this for a few minutes before Juice pushed him up and away.

"What were you playing at in the chapel...What are you crazy or something? What if someone had noticed?" Juice hissed at Opie.

Opie sat up and shrugged shaking his head. "They didn't notice Juice, so stop panicking."

He leant forward to kiss Juice again but the smaller man moved away from him and tried to stand but Opie grabbed him and pulled him back down to sit next to him. He wanted to kiss Juice again but Juice put his hands up on Opie's chest to stop him, shaking his head sadly.

"We can't do this Opie...not here. What if someone walks in on us?"

"No one is going to walk in on us Juice."

As he leaned forward to kiss Juice, there was a knocking on the door and Opie barely managed to spring off the bed and sit in Juice's chair next to his desk before Jax came through the door. Looking suspiciously at the two guys in the room, Juice sat on the bed and Opie at Juice's desk.

"Everything alright guy's...I'm not disturbing anything am I?"

xXx

Later that day the guys had gathered together in one of the bays of the garage to discuss the last of the details before doing what they had to do in retaliation against the Mayan's.

Jax and Juice were both leant over the maps and other intel that had been gathered before the retaliation took place that night. Jax pulled one of the maps over and traced the roads explaining what they had found.

"Mayan's have got two shops where they cut and bag the heroin. Twenty minutes outside of Oakland, here."

He said pointing to two areas on the map, pointing to the area that showed where the shops were. One of the guys looked at it and asked.

"Surely the Mayan's wouldn't be stupid enough to keep the guns there?"

Juice picked up a photograph that he then placed on top of the map.

"Marcus Alverez...President of the Oakland charter, owns both buildings where where they run their dope operations."

Jax showed them another map that showed a warehouse complex and explained that he had tracked a dummy corporation of Alverez's, this was where they were keeping the guns. Clay congratulated them on finding out all that they needed to know and they all went home to get ready.

xXx

Opie was in his garage getting his bag ready to go and blow up the warehouse when his wife Donna came out to see what he was up to. She saw the bag on the table and started to get worried.

"What are you doing?"

Opie looked at his wife and wished that she had not come out to see what he was doing.

"I've got a run to make."

"You said you were finished with that shit."

xXx

Clay rode up on his bike next to his stepson and noticed that Opie was not with him but he had Opie's bag slung over his shoulder.

"Where's Opie?"

"Kid got hurt...had to take her to the hospital. It's all good brother, I got it...I know what to do."

Clay was not happy but there was not a lot he could do about it. The rest of the guys joined them and they went and got the job done. Later that night when Juice got back to his house he noticed a lone biker sitting in the shadows near his home. He pulled up and slid his hand inside his cut before slowly getting off his bike. As he was to swing round and point his gun at the person's shadow, he was aware that they had moved and was now standing behind him.

"It's me."

Opie whispered in his ear.


	3. Seeds Part 2

Juice was in his kitchen making coffee when he felt Opie come up behind him and put his arms around his waist, he snuggled into the closeness that was Opie's arms and sighed. Opie heard his sigh and looked down at the smaller man who was leaning slightly backwards and snuggled within his arms. Nudging him slightly he asked what was wrong, he felt Juice shrug his shoulders a little before he answered.

"I just wished you could stay longer…..I know you have to get home to your wife and kids but…."

Opie tightened his grip on Juice and held him for a while longer before answering.

"I wish I could but I've got the mid-morning shift at the mill today and I've got to get home and make sure that Donna has not thrown me out. She wasn't too pleased when to discover that I had returned to the club after everything that had happened."

"I know…..it is just me being stupid."

"You are not stupid."

Opie growled in Juice's ear before he started to trail light kisses down the smaller man's neck making him gasp as he bit down onto his neck where it joined his shoulder. He heard Juice bite back a moan as he slid his hands down over his stomach towards his groin and cupped his throbbing member through his jeans. He knew he should stop and let Juice get ready to go to the club before Jax or someone else turned up looking for him.

Juice should have been at the club more than an hour ago for the morning meeting but they had been otherwise occupied at the time. They both of them needed to be on their way but neither of them could resist another session together even though both of them knew they would have some explaining to do. Just as he was about to pull Juice down onto the kitchen floor he heard his phone go off and he grabbed it to see who it was, it was Jax. Flipping it open he answered.

"Hi Jax, What's up?"

"Any chance you can come over to the clubhouse later on?"

"Should be able to…..be there a problem?"

"Nah….Unser has a protection run for us and Clay wondered if you wanted to go on it."

"Yeah, that should be fine. What time?"

"1800 hours…..Oh and Opie?"

"Yeah."

"If you see Juice in your travels, tell him to get his ass to the clubhouse….he's late."

XxX

At the clubhouse the guys sat in another meeting, this time with Juice present having made his apologies to Clay and Jax over missing 'church'. They were discussing the present problem they had concerning the fire that had destroyed the cabin where they had stored their guns. The bodies of two women who had been part of the assembly crew had been discovered in the burnt remains of the building, in a utility hatch where they had hidden when the Mayan's had raided and then burnt the place down. Hale was positively glowing when he had discovered the bodies; 'finally' he thought 'I've got the Sons right where I want them.'

At that moment the club was dealing with the fact that both women had been blowing Tig and the fact that his actions had now put the club at risk.

"How could you be so stupid brotha, what were yah thinkin?" Chibs growled as he stood over the SAA, who was sat slouched in his seat at the table.

"I was thinking of getting blown twice."

A furious Chibs glared at Tig before he spoke again. "You're DNA is in the system you idiot, the cops process those bodies and the DNA will lead them right to our front door."

"No one can prove you killed them." Bobby spoke up from where he was sitting between Juice and Jax.

"That won't make a difference to the ATF. It might give them the link they need to our gun running business and then we are stuffed." Jax was fuming 'how could Tig be so stupid.

"Then the ATF takes up permanent residence in our collective rectums." Juice replied, making a circling motion with his finger to emphasis his point.

Clay sat at the head of the reaper table glaring at his SAA. He glanced over at Juice.

"County only need to send out a crime scene unit and we are stuffed. Can you check to see when they are sending one over?"

"It's a local case, County won't get involved. Hale will just end up borrowing a crime scene unit from Lodi."

"We need to get the cops looking somewhere else; we need a distraction of some kind."

"A murder would do it." Bobby muttered.

Tig got up to leave the room, looking at Clay as he did so. "Fine I'll go kill me a couple of wetbacks and get them in that direction."

Jax was sitting at the table trying to think of a way to extricate the club from their present problem. He saw Tig getting up to leave and blurted out.

"What if there was another way of doing this without killing anyone."

Clay and Tig looked at Jax as if he was mad; Jax turned his body slightly and pointed to something on the wall.

"Bullets before brains. What if there was another way of stopping the crime scene unit from getting to the bodies at the warehouse without killing someone."

Clay looked thoughtfully before he answered his stepson before he answered.

"What you thinking?"

"Skeeter at the cemetery always has more gambling debt than he can manage. Give him a payoff to give us a couple of bodies."

Clay sat and thought for a moment before deciding a course of action to be taken.

"See it gets done no mistakes."

Staring pointedly at Jax, so that he knew if anything went wrong it would be his ass on the line.

"Meeting adjourned."

xXx

Opie took a drag of his cigarette during his break before he got his phone out of his pocket. He flipped it open and walked a short distance from his colleagues before he dialled a number he was starting to know by heart. He waited a few moments as it rang, and as he waited he thought back to that morning before he had left Juice's to go back to his house. He liked waking up with Juice next to him; he had watched Juice while he was still asleep and thought that he looked incredibly innocent while he was asleep despite his tattoos.

There was a kind of childlike innocents to him that belied what he was; he looked more like a white collared nerd rather than an outlaw biker. If not, for the tattoos on his head but he knew that they could be covered up with a hat or hair if Juice grew his hair out which he could see from his Mohawk was almost jet black and was really tight curls which was almost impossible to see in the Mohawk. He had been so tempted to lean forward and kiss him awake when Juice had opened his eyes and gazed up into his, smiling that gorgeous smile of his.

The phone ran for a few moments and he was about to flip it shut when he heard someone pick it up.

"Hello."

It was not Juice's voice and for a moment Opie almost panicked and hung up but he thought that might look odd to the person on the other end of the phone.

"Hi….Is Juice there?"

"Opie….is that you?"

"Yeah, Who's this?"

"Chibs, What do you need Juice for?"

"Just wanted to check something with him, concerning an internet search I'm doing. It's a surprise for my Pops."

"Well he's not here at the moment. Do you want to leave a message for him or do you want him to call you back."

"Can you ask him to call me back when he can….Look I've got to go….breaks over?"

"Sure man, I'll let him know."

Opie hung up and breathed a sigh of relief that had been close. He put his phone away and finished off his cigarette before walking back to where his foreman was waiting impatiently to start again. The rest of the shift went as slowly as it had since he had started and when the horn went, signalling it was time to go home he was of the first to get into his truck and head for home.

He got home as his wife was bringing his kids in from school but she would not talk to him, she was still angry about him going back to the club and he went and got changed, headed out to his bike without a single word passing between them.

He could understand her anger but 'Dammit' he thought, 'why can't she understand what it was like for him.' At least with Juice he didn't have that problem and the thought of him made him smile as he rode towards the club and the evening's work of guarding one of Unser's trucks as it transported electrical goods.

xXx

Juice was driving a car they they had borrowed from the garage, Chibs and Jax was in front driving Darby's stolen vehicle, when one of Lodi's finest decided to pull them over because of the broken side mirror. This had been broken when two hot rods had decided to be dickheads and run Jax off the road causing Chibs to spill his beer which he had not been happy about.

When the cop had stopped the car in front of them both Juice and the prospect had got really worried, there were two dead bodies in the vehicle that Jax was driving and the stench coming from both of them would not go unnoticed by the cop, so Juice did the only thing he could think of, he rammed the back of the cops cruiser with the car he was driving.

As he and Half Sack leapt from the car and started to sprint up the road away from the now enraged officer, the cop started firing at them and Juice glancing back when the other vehicle flew past them to pick them up, realised with a start that it was a guy he knew from the club in Lodi. He hoped that he was far enough away from the guy that he would not recognise him.

Unfortunately for Juice, the officer had recognised him and although he did not mention Juice's name when he was finally able to contact his boss he was determined that one day he would catch up with Juice. He knew he sometimes popped into the club and he knew that it would be only a matter of time before he got his hands on the wiry Puerto Rican.

He had admired him from afar at the club before and an idea started to take form in his mind, if Juice did not want to end up in prison as some ones 'bitch' then he was going to do as he was told and end up as his 'bitch'. As he started his long walk back to Lodi after he discovered that he had no signal on his phone, hoping all the time that he would get a lift from a passing member of the public, the thought of what he was going to do to Juice kept him going.

xXx

It was three in the morning when Opie finally got home to Charming, he thought for a moment of going to Juice's house but thought that Juice might be asleep. With a sigh he made his way to his own house and a wife that although he still loved her he knew he no longer felt the same about her, as he had when he married her. He gazed down at Donna as he slipped into the bed next to her, she was still beautiful and he still loved her but as he lay there watching her as she slept he knew that he would not be able to give Juice up and he also knew that he would not be able to give up his wife and kids. With these conflicting thoughts going around in his head, he lay down and tried to get some sleep.

Across town Juice was trying to sleep after the day he had just had, he had just managed to roll over and close his eyes when he heard the sound of an incoming message on his phone. Picking it up he read the message and realised with horror that it was from the officer that they had left stranded on the side of the highway.


	4. Funtown

It was a bright sunny day and the town of Charming was playing host to a visiting fair. Scattered across the large field was various rides and attractions and people from miles had come to enjoy the day, it was a time for them to relax and let their hair down. Enjoying a rare moment of pure and carefree abandonment, Jax, Tig and Bobby were frolicking like overgrown kids on one of the rides.

Clay and Gemma watched their boys enjoying the fair from a distance and when their overgrown children finally finished on the ride they walked with them over to another. Halfway to the next ride Gemma was trying to entice Clay into the photo booth with her for some X-rated fun of their own but Clay pretended unwillingness until he in an effort to curb his wife's behaviour picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

Across the field hidden slightly from curious spectators, Juice leant against his bike as he watched the others enjoy the day was not alone. He was talking to someone but from the angle he was standing it was difficult to see who the person was, at the one of the food stalls Donna Winston was handing some candy floss to one of her children when she noticed him and nudged her husband Opie.

"Is that Juice over there?"

Opie glanced over to where his wife was pointing and saw it was Juice and some bloke he had never seen before.

"Yeah, looks like him."

For a moment he wondered who it was that Juice was talking to and was surprised to feel a surge of jealousy course through his veins at the sight of his lover talking to another man. A commotion on the field not far from where he and his family were standing drew his attention away from Juice and the stranger for a moment and when he glanced back over to look at his lover again; Juice and the stranger were no longer in view. He turned back just in time to see Jax dunk the clown into the water after the guy went too far with his taunts about bikers Opie heard him say to Jax.

"What's the matter can't get the little ball in to the tight hole….bet all your leatherwear and butt buddies say the same thing."

Tig had stormed forward and hit the target dropping the unfortunate man into the water, both Bobby and Jax stopping him from climbing out and pushing him back under the water, they would not listen to his pleas when he tried to apologise to them.

Opie spotted Juice who was jogging over to Clay and Gemma who was watching the proceedings around them and saw Juice converse with Clay for a few minutes before jogging off to find the others. Opie was still curious about the guy that Juice had been talking to but with Donna and the kids with him he could not pursue the matter without raising suspicions. Still there was always later on he thought, he had planned to meet up with Juice at the fair but then Donna had pointed out to him that it would be nice if they took the kids and spent the day together as a family.

xXx

Later that day after dusk had fallen and most of the good people of Charming were at home, there were still people on the TM lot. Clay was leaning against his bike with Tig, Jax, and Bobby with Juice sat on the railings just behind them, the prospect was in the garage sweeping the floor. Clay looked over to where he could see the kid working before he addressed his stepson.

"Think the prospect is in deep enough?"

"May only have one ball but it's a big one, I trust him." Jax replied, lighting a cigarette and taking a deep puff.

Clay thought for a few seconds before calling out to the prospect, just as a truck rolled into the lot.

"Hey prospect, get over here."

The lad put down the broom and jogged over to the men with Tig shouting out to him to hurry up and not get run over.

After the truck had unloaded, the guys retreated into the clubhouse most of them gathering around the bar with the prospect serving them beers, Juice was over at the pool table assembling guns. He was listening to the conversation that was taking place between Clay and the delivery guy and had only half a mind on what he was doing. The other half of his mind was trying to figure out how he was going to extricate his self from a difficult situation that he found himself in.

The cop from the other day had recognised him as he fled the scene and had sent him a message telling him to meet him at the fair. When they had met, the guy had told him he was willing to look the other way for a price, a price that Juice was not willing to pay. He wanted Juice to start paying him attention when he was at the club and to meet up with him for some no strings attached fun when he was in the mood for some relief. Had he not met Opie a few weeks ago he would have seriously considered it, although the guy was a cop, he was not that bad to look at but now he had met Opie he did not want to cheat on him.

However as the cop had pointed out to Juice, Opie obviously did not feel the same way about Juice, after all he had a wife and family that he was not willing to leave and still slept with his wife on a regular occurrence and in his opinion, Opie merely saw Juice as nothing more than a distraction from the pressures of home and the club. Juice did not want to believe him but it had started to niggle at him that they guy was right but he knew that Opie would never leave his wife and kids for him risking the wrath of the club and his father or the rest of Charming for that fact, finding out he was Bi, something which Juice knew he was still having problems coming to terms with. He felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket and taking it out saw a message.

"Meet me at the club tonight or I will guarantee problems for your precious MC."

Juice thought for a moment about ignoring the message but he did not want any problems to be caused for the club. So he texted back, 'What time?' A few minutes later his phone vibrated again and he read 'Midnight.'

xXx

The following morning the SONS received news about Oswald's daughter being raped at the fair and after a lot of arguing, mainly by Tig who did not see why they should care if some civilians kid got raped, especially considering that Oswald did not really give a shit about the club, they all agreed to find the animal who did it. Clay asked Juice to start hacking into police data bases to see if he could find any of Darby's guys who had a thing for underage pussy as the number of NORDS had been seen at the fair the day before.

Juice started running a programme that would search through all the police data bases in California and while he was doing this he thought back to the meeting with the cop the night before.

FLASHBACK

He had got to the club a little before midnight and had sat in one of the back booths where the lighting was a bit dimmer and offered a bit more privacy from the rest of the club. He had not been sitting there long before the guy had turned up, slipping into the booth next to him and trapping him up against the wall. The guy had sat close enough to Juice to make it look like to anyone who happened to watching them that they were a couple. It was also so that people could not see what he was about to do to Juice.

"So you came?"

He said, leering hungrily at juice while his hand slid under the table, Juice stiffened as he felt it on his thigh and tried to move away from him but the guy slid closer, putting an arm around Juice's shoulder and pulling him into a hug.

"You didn't give me a choice." Juice muttered back through gritted teeth.

He caressed the side of Juice's face as he moved his face closer to Juice so he could whisper in his ear.

"You had a choice; you could have ignored me and not come."

He started to nuzzle the side of Juice's neck, his tongue sliding up and down causing Juice to shudder and he heard him trying to suppress a moan as his tongue slid across his throat, the cop nibbling on Juice's ear.

"St…stop please." Juice whimpered.

The cop smiled, he had no intention of stopping, and he was enjoying himself too much.

"Why? When you obviously enjoying it."

"I want you to stop."

"What you want and what is going to happen are two totally different things."

He continued what he was doing until he felt Juice try and push him away. He pulled back staring at Juice.

"Alright we'll stop for now but you are going to do what I want."

"No I won't, I told you I am with someone."

The cop laughed and sneered at Juice.

"What Opie? You really think he will leave his wife and kids for someone like you. You are fooling yourself if you think he would."

He leaned back in to kiss Juice but Juice tried to push him away again and this time he made him angry. The cop grabbed ahold of Juice, making him gasp slightly at the roughness of the hold he had on him. The cop moving in closer and he said to Juice viciously.

"You listen to me you pathetic excuse for a man, you will do as I say or that precious club of yours will pay the price. Do you understand me, when I want to meet you in the future we will meet up and you will do exactly as I tell you."

Juice felt fear as he saw the almost deranged feral look in the cop's eyes as he stared at him and he felt himself nod in acceptance. The cop smiled smugly at him before leaning in and kissing him long and hard before he let go of Juice and slid out of the booth, leaving Juice to sort himself out again.

"I'll see you around."

END FLASHBACK

xXx

Later that afternoon the programme that Juice had been running spat out the name of one of Darby's guys who had convictions for sex crimes, Juice walked out of the clubhouse to find Clay, Jax and Tig who had just drugged two of the cops who had been hanging around the garage all day.

"Three of Darby's guys have for sex related crimes on their rap sheets but this guy Jonny Yate, he's from Pope."

He held up the paperwork so the guys could see and both Tig and Bobby recognised him from the fair the day before. Clay asked them if they were certain and both said they were.

"Right let's find this bastard shall we."

As they walked away, Tig handed Juice a bag of pills telling him that they were vitamins and the idiot swallowed one of them.

xXx

The following morning Juice awoke to someone kicking him on his foot, he was lying on the ground outside of Charming PD and as he became more aware of his surroundings he realised he was dress in nothing but a diaper and his boots. And stapled to his chest was sign that read.

Slightly retarded child. Please adopt me.

Hale continued to kick his foot and he heard him say.

"You must have really upset your friends for the, to do this to you."

Juice somewhat confused managed to stand and mumble to the deputy that he was late for his 8am feed and was about to stumble up the road when a black van stopped in front of him and Opie hopped out.

"I'll take him from here Hale that is if you are not arresting him?"

Opie couldn't help grinning at Juice's predicament and he felt his face break into a grin. Hale barely glanced at him and told him to get the idiot out of his sight before he booked him for something. Opie helped Juice into the van before jumping into the driver's side.

"God Juice, how do you manage to get yourself into these predicaments?" he said to his lover laughing before he drove Juice home so he could get a change of clothes before he faced the ridicule that he was going to get at the garage.


	5. Patch Over

The past couple of weeks had brought a number of problems for SAMCRO, not least of all finding new storage facilities for their guns which currently were still stored in the barrels on the truck in TM's lot. All present in the chapel knew that if the ATF raided then they would all be looking at 25 to life in Stockton. The present and pressing problem that they had now was if they tried to store the guns anywhere there was a danger of the guns still leading straight back to their doorstep and they had to come up with a hiding place that the ATF and the local law were not aware of. Jax had been thinking about this problem for a while and he suddenly realised where they could hide them, he put his idea before the table at the next chapel.

"What about that call I got from Jury last week, the Devils Tribe has been having a few problems with the local Mayan's wanting them to pay them to let them keep running pussy and gambling. How about I ride up there and help them with their little problem and at the same time, see if they can help us out with their problem."

Juice shook his head and spoke up when he heard Jax talking about riding to Nevada.

"No….no that's a risky ride brother, Nevada is Mayan territory, their still looking for payback for our raid."

Pointing out the obvious risk of such a ride, Juice was not the only one who decided it was fairly risky, as several of the other brothers present at the table held the same view. Jax though was undeterred and pointed out to the group that he would ride into Nevada with one other person, pointing to Bobby and they would go in under the radar. Clay thought and pondered for a moment his step son's suggestion.

"You think you can persuade Jury to store the guns for us?"

"Hell my old man saved his ass back in Nam; he owes the Teller a chit."

Clay pursed his lips together as he made his decision pointing his finger at Jax.

"You and Bobby then, no lone ranger shit, keep it low profile don't want the Mayan's knowing you're in Nevada."

He turned and looked at Tig.

"They pull this off; I want you and Juice driving the barrels."

"We'll need something big."

"I'll call Unser."

xXx

While the others went about their business Juice decided to go to his dorm room and check on a programme he had left running on his laptop. He had just stepped into his room when he felt the presence of someone behind him and a hand snake around his middle. Whoever it was pushed him forward into his room and covered his mouth with their other hand as he gave a startled yelp. Closing the door shut behind them with their foot, picking Juice up they moved towards the bed and dropped him on it. Immobilizing Juice as he landed on top of the smaller man, Opie kissed him with a deep longing; Juice returned the kiss with as much intensity as what Opie was kissing him with, he had seen Opie for several days and he had missed him.

"You're happy to see me I guess?"

Opie mumbled into Juice's mouth and started to kiss him on his throat, trailing small kisses down towards his chest. He wasn't concerned that someone might walk in on them and for some reason neither was Juice.

"More than you know." Juice replied.

He started to explore Opie's body with his hands, pushing up his T-shirt and running his hands over his abs on Opie's stomach, his fingers moved down until they were on the waistband of Opie's jeans and were about to unbutton them when Opie's phone went off. Both groaned and Opie was going to ignore it but Juice pointed out to him that everyone knew his ringtone and if anyone heard it out in the hallway they might wonder why it was coming from Juice's room. Opie rolled off Juice and reached into his back pocket for his phone, as he flipped it open and answered it, Juice went to check on his program but Opie grabbed his arm and pulled him back down onto the bed. After a few moments of listening to the other person on the phone, he flipped it shut and then leant his forehead against Juice's, sighing.

"That was my boss at the mill, I got to go. We can meet up later tonight after everything is done today?"

"I can't I'm going to Nevada with Tig, Club business."

"What time are you leaving?"

"Don't know yet but I could find out and let you know? Then see if we can meet out before I have to leave. Meanwhile you had better get yourself to work, while you still have a job."

"Yes mother."

Juice pushed Opie up and off of the bed but before Opie kissed him again; he opened the door checking to see that no one saw him leave Juice's room. Seeing no one he gave him another quick peck on the cheek and then headed for the door and his truck.

xXx

Later that night Tig and Juice stood next to the chain link fence that surrounded Unser's yard. They watched while the Doberman guard dog wolfed down some meat that Juice had drugged and thrown over the gate, the dog very happy while it was wolfing down the steak in comparison to Tig who was still moaning about missing out on all the fine pussy at the Devil Tribe's clubhouse and the patch over party that was taking place.

"Patch over party man, Jury has got all that lovely pussy there. Man that is going to be such a good party."

"Uhh Fido's having a party of his own."

Juice replied, as they both watched the dog pick u remained if the drugged meat and run off with it. . Taking a set of wire cutters from a bag he was carrying, Juice snapped the chain that was keeping the gate locked and secure. They wandered into the yard looking for the truck that Unser had left the keys in for them and as they did so, they heard the dog barking insanely and turned in time to see it rushing towards them, foaming at the mouth.

"OH SHIT….RUN!"

Tig yelled at Juice and both men ran for the truck that they could see parked just ahead of them. Juice reached the driver's door first and jumped into the cab just as the dog grabbed ahold of Tig's ass.

"OPEN THE DOOR….GOD DAMMIT."

Tig yelled at Juice when he discovered that the door that he was trying to open was still locked from the inside. Juice reached across from the driver's side of the cab and unlocked the door which allowed Tig to yank the door open and after kicking the frenzied dog away, jump into the cab of the truck. When he put his hand to the seat of his jeans and pulled it back there was blood on his hand and he glared at Juice.

"I thought you said you drugged the meat?"

"I did."

"Fuck…it's foaming at the mouth."

The dog was still outside the truck trying to get into the two men.

"That thing should be dead. I dosed it with like two grams."

"Grams of what?"

"Crank."

Tig looked at Juice in disbelief.

"You fed Crystal Meth to a killer Doberman….are you retarded."

Juice looked like he thought for a second or two before answering.

"No!" Shaking his head at the same time.

He pulled his gun out and looked at Tig with a goofy insane smile.

"You want me to shoot it?"

Tig reached out and grabbed hold of Juice's arm.

"No just drive….look at my ass."

He moaned again as he reached back to check the amount of damage to his ass.

xXx

The truck pulled out of the yard and made its way to the TM lot. As soon as they got there, Tig with Juice's help limped into the clubhouse to get his ass patched up. Opie was sitting at the bar with his pa and both looked up in shack as the two men staggered in through the door. At the sight of Tig leaning on Juice, they leapt up to help get Tig to the couches.

"What the hell happened?" asked Piney as they lowered Tig down.

"Unser's guard dogs bite him."

"I thought you were supposed to drug it before you went into the yard."

"Idiot did," snapped Tig, "With crank, no less, hence why I ended up with the thing taking a chunk out of my ass."

Piney looked at Juice in disbelief.

"Are you retarded?"

After Tig had been patched up and Piney and Opie had ridden off to their respective homes, Juice and Tig were left to get the barrels on the truck and deliver them to Nevada. Tig was still smarting at his ass being bitten by the Doberman and was giving Juice a serious hard time over it. Juice was trying to calm the situation down and have a conversation with the pissed off sergeant.

"I am not happy about this matter either. At least you and I, you know we can try to have a decent conversation."

Tig was not in the mood to be having a conversation of any kind with Juice especially as he was in so much pain still despite the pain killers he had taken.

"What? What do you want? You want to bond? You want to get closer? Fine!"

Tig started to unbuckle his pants. Juice started to get worried and he looked at Tig with undisguised loathing on his face.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna dunk my balls in your mouth. You're gonna gag, I'm gonna laugh. We'll be best friends forever."

Juice lifted up one of the barrels on the trolley and pulled it backwards on to the truck, Tig moved forward with his junk hanging out still. Juice just looked at him in disgust and told him to pull his pants back up after Tig asked him if he had ever been to Attica.

Eventually the truck was loaded and they went to their rooms to grab their travel bags. As Juice was closing the door to his room, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Pulling it out to answer it he saw it was the cop who was presently trying to blackmail him.

"What do you want?"

"That's not very nice. I want to meet with you. NOW!"

"I can't, I'm not in Charming at the moment."

"JUICE."

He heard Tig call him from the main room and hung up on the cop, quickly moving to join his brother who was at that moment getting into the truck, ready to head out already.


	6. Givng Back

The day of the annual Taste of Charming fundraiser was bright and sunny and although a number of people were already at the school where this year's events were taking place, a number of people involved had yet to leave their homes. One such person was Opie, he was doing the fire works for the end of the fundraiser but at that moment both he and Jax were shirtless in his back garden, trying to remove a baby's cot from the shed, where his wife had stored it after their last child had outgrown it.

"How did you manage to get this thing in here?" he grunted as he tried to wrestle it out of the shed without everything else falling-out on top of him. Donna was watching him and Jax with great amusement on her face.

"By myself." She said mischievously, grinning as another item fell out of the shed narrowly missing the two men who stood in front of its open doors. Jax had hold of the fore mentioned cot and managed to dislodge it as more items fell out of the shed.

"Whoa….sorry…sorry." he chuckled as he moved backwards with the cot held aloft as still more items seemed to fall out of the small shed. He placed the cot on the ground and checked it for any damage, finding none he was pleased.

"Looks great…..How much?" he asked his two friends but it was Donna he looked at as he asked.

Opie grunted at Jax's question, "It's a gift."

He took the cot out to the works van that Jax had borrowed from the garage so he could get the cot home and Jax peeled some notes off a bundle from his back pocket and handed them to Donna.

"Here," he told her, closing her fingers around it as he placed the money in her hand.

"No Jax, I don't want that." She told him but he insisted that she took the money, telling her that he was getting a real good deal with the cot. As he approached the back gate of the garden, Opie came back in and Jax stopped to say goodbye and ask him if he was going to see him at the fundraiser later that day.

"Alright, I'll see you at the fundraiser later on."

"That the taste if Charming thing." Donna asked walking up to her husband and Jax.

Opie looked over to Donna as he answered her.

"Yeah, I'm the one doing the fireworks."

"Oh, really."

Donna did not look or sound too happy when she heard that Opie was doing the fireworks for the fundraiser thinking it was a club thing. Opie grimaced and reminded her it had nothing to do with the club and she heard Jax tell her it was something his mom had started years ago to help with the education of Charming.

xXx

Later that day, Opie and his family had just arrived at the school when Kyle Hobart the guy who had abandoned Opie when he blew the truck yard that had got him five years in prison turned up. Opie looked at him with undisguised disgust but other than that did nothing and turned away from the man when he looked in his direction, Jax had joined his friend and his family by then. Jax told him to go and enjoy the rest of the day with his family and to leave Kyle to the rest of the club to deal with.

Opie, Donna and the kids wandered into the school and Opie left them to go and set up the fireworks as he worked he thought back to the events that had led him to being arrested five years before. The club had been asked if they would do an insurance job for one of the local haulage companies that had got into some financial difficulty and thought they might get some money by having their yard destroyed by fire.

Opie had been tasked with blowing up the yard and Kyle had been his getaway driver that night but the guy had panicked and left Opie to be caught. Opie had never said anything to the cops about Kyle being there but the club had excommunicated the guy and kicked him out of Charming and the club, he was only at the fundraiser because his kid was playing there at the end of the night and the club had allowed the creep to come and listen to his kid play.

As he put the fireworks together he thought about Juice and wondered what he was doing in Nevada, it had been about three days since he had left with the barrels filled with guns to the new charter in Indian Hills in order to hide them from prying eyes, mainly ATF eyes. He wondered what his lover was doing and thought about phoning him to see how he was doing but at that moment Jax joined him and he was unable to.


	7. AK51

Juice was glad he was finally going home, for the past week after everyone else had left he had remained to help assemble the guns and then pack them back in the barrels that they had travelled in, ready for the return trip to Charming. They would then be sold to the Niner's and they could look forward to worrying about other things for a while. He was in the dorm room that he had been given to stay in for the past week, packing his travel bag when there was a knock at the door.

"Yeah, it's open." He called out to whoever was knocking.

The door opened to reveal Cherry, one of the sweet butts that hung around the clubhouse, Juice had got to know her quite well and he knew that she had fallen quite heavily for one of his brothers, the prospect Half Sack.

Cherry stood in the doorway watching Juice as he packed the last of his things into his travel bag and looked as though she was trying to work up the courage to ask him something.

"You off soon to Charming?" Cherry asked finally after a few seconds of indeciveness.

"Yeah, I'm leaving as soon as I am packed."

"Umm, can I ask you a favour?"

"What?"

"Can I hitch a lift with you to Bakersfield?"

"You in trouble or something?" Juice asked her noticing for the first time that she looked scared as well.

"No I just want to move on, been in one place too long."

Cherry smiled at him as she finished, hoping that she had been right about him having a soft heart and she was hoping as well that he might be a romantic as well, so that when they got to Bakersfield she would be able to persuade him to let her stay in the truck with him all the way to Charming instead of dropping her off.

Juice studied her for a moment, there was a niggling feeling at the back of his neck that she was not telling the truth and it might be a bad idea to let her tag along but he thought to his self 'it might be nice to have some company for part of the journey' that thought sticking in his mind as he made his decision and just hoped that he would not end up regretting it.

"Ok, if you are packed and ready to go by the time I get to the truck, I'll give you a lift."

Cherry squealed with delight and launched herself at him, hugging him and thanking him.

"I'm already packed…..I'll just get my bag."

As she left the room Juice started to wonder if his generosity was going to get him in trouble again.

xXx

Jax and Clay were walking across the lot of TM when the truck with the guns arrived back in Charming, as they walked towards the truck they noticed that Juice was not alone in the cab and as he jumped out from the cab that he had been baking in for the last few hours, he looked relieved.

"Whoa it's hot in that cab."

He had time to say before Clay wrapped his hand around the back of Juice's neck and squeezed hard. Causing the younger member to cringe from the pain it caused him.

"What the hell is she doing here?"

Cherry had jumped down from the passenger side of the truck and she rushed over to where Clay was trying to twist Juice's head off his shoulder's she heard Juice yelp.

"She said she was getting out at Bakersfield."

She reached for Clay's arm trying to pull him off the unfortunate Juice, who had been good enough to give her lift all the way to Charming.

"It's not his fault ok; I'm here to talk to someone."

Clay turned angrily towards here pointing aggressively at her and getting into her personal space.

"You talk to someone else in another charter, you got that sweet butt." He sneered at her, to emphasis her place within the SONS organization, which in her case was the bottom rung of the ladder. He let go of Juice and tells him to get her immediately off the lot, Jax walks over and calls him an idiot slapping him one around the back of the head.

"What was I supposed to do, throw her out of the cab?"

Juice asked as he grabbed her arm and dragged her off the lot. "Let's go."

"You idiot." Jax tells him again.

As Juice dragged the girl from the lot their progress was being watched by every person in the garage and outside the clubhouse and especially by one member, Half Sack, the prospect that Cherry had come to see but there was also one other person watching the proceedings. In an unmarked car parked across the street from the garage, the occupant was taking a great deal of interest in the truck that had just arrived and the driver who had hopped out. The driver had trailed Juice all the way from Nevada, watching to see where Juice was going, it was after all Juice who he was interested in.

After the commotion settled down on the lot after the girl Cherry had been escorted out of Teller Morrow by Juice, he entered the clubhouse to go and lay down in his dorm room for a little while until Clay called them all for a meeting later that afternoon. He was glad to be home in Charming and for just an hour or so he wanted to lie down and forget the pain he was in.

When he had left Charming he week before to deliver the truck with its precious cargo to Nevada with Tig he had answered a call from the cop who was trying to make things hard for the club and had told him he wanted to meet up that night, Juice had hung up on him and told him to back off before he turned his phone off. A few nights later when he had been sitting in the bar at the Devil's clubhouse his phone had started ringing again, he answered it without checking to see who it was and thinking it might be Opie seeing how he was doing, when he heard the voice of the asshole cop who had been harassing him for a while, threatening and demanding that they met up.

FLASHBACK

He should have hung up when he heard the cop on the phone but the cop told him that he knew where he was and if he did not meet him, he would keep his promise and star tot cause some major headaches for the club. He pointed out to Juice that he knew what was in the barrels and it would be unfortunate is the Devil's tribe clubhouse was suddenly raided after an anonymous tip off, so against his better judgement Juice had met with him at a motel a few miles down the road and which was why he was in so much pain now.

As soon as Juice had walked through the door of the motel room, the cop had knocked him to the ground with a blow to the back of his head which was why it had hurt so much when Jax had slapped him on the back of his head after his confrontation with Clay. Juice still had a lump on the back of his head where the cop had hit him.

As Juice had lain stunned on the floor, the cop had handcuffed Juice's hands behind his back and then inflicted more pain on him. He had reached down and yanked Juice's jeans roughly down his legs to his knees and had smiled when he noticed that Juice was commando under his jeans. He looked with delight at Juice's muscular ass, squeezing his butt cheeks hard enough to leave bruises. He had been practically drooling as he pushed his thumbs against Juice's entrance, Juice had tried to buck him off, he did not want any part of this pervert inside him but the more he struggled the more the guy seemed turned on by it. Juice had been unable to stop him from forcing his index finger in and probing him as deep as he could.

He had heard him mutter, "Hmm, nice and snug…..Not so tight….muscular. Just the way I like it."

Juice had not been able to stop him as the other man had straddled his upper legs and the proceeded to roughly grope him with one hand as he reached down with the other between his legs. He had laughed cruelly when Juice had flinched when he pressed his finger inside him and it excited him even more but he was not ready yet to penetrate Juice, he wanted to do that in a different setting than the one they were presently in, so for the moment he was willing with just roughly groping Juice and making him whimper as he hurt him.

END FLASHBACK

It felt as though he had only just lain down when there was a knock on his door and Chibs was shouting through it that it was time for the meeting. Juice sighed and pushed himself up off the bed, wincing slightly at the burning pain between his legs as he sat up, the pain was not as bad as it had been a few days ago but it still stung to sit and it was hard to get comfortable. He had thought on the long drive back that he was not going to make it a couple of times but the painkillers he had been taking, helped a lot and before going to the meeting he popped a few more helping them down with a mouthful of water.

xXx

Clay, Jax, Bobby, Chibs and Juice were sat around the table discussing what was going to be done with the guns and what was going to happen with McCeevy and the business that Chibs accompanied him up North. Clay wanted to know everything that had gone down, who McCeevy had met with and what it would mean for the SONS. Chibs recounted to all those present what had happened when he had been with McCeevy.

"He met with a number of Ex Pats and business men and a number of real IRA people here in the states. He's off greasing the hands of the port officials to get the cargo through. Got a week, maybe ten days and then he wants his 200k, money up front for the IRA to keep them flush. If he doesn't get it then we lose the Irish pipeline."

As they all started talking at once, the door flew open and Half Sack stood there with rubber gloves on his hands.

"Clay, you had better get out here." He informed them.

They all filed out of the clubhouse, led by Clay out onto the lot, several cars were parked near the clubhouse and as Clay and his men filed out out of the door, a tallish reddish blonde dressed in a trouser suit approached them and flashed a badge.

"Agent Stahl, ATF. I'm looking for the owner of Teller Morrow?"

"That's me." Clay replied to her question.

Deputy Hale stepped forward and grabs hold of his arm, pulling out a set of handcuffs which he promptly snapped around Clay's wrists.

"Let's go Clay."

Clay did not seem disturbed by Hale grabbing him and handcuffing him but Clay was not willing to play ball by just trotting tamely to the jail without first finding out why he was being arrested.

"You better tell me what I'm being arrested for?"

"Do you know a Nate Mineke, he was involved in a prison van hold up this morning that resulted in the deaths of a sheriff and two members of the public. He dropped his phone at the scene and the last call he received was from this garage."

"Anyone could have phoned him. What are the charges?"

"No charges yet, I just want to chat. Down at the station."

xXx

After the ATF left with Clay, Jax immediately got Juice to go online and see what he could dig up on Mineke Discount Mufflers but he was unable to find anything on Piney's friend. He tried everything he knew but there was nothing. Jax stood looking over his shoulder as he searched and Juice felt bad about not being able to find anything. As he came to the end of all possible search engines he looked up at Jax, waving his hand at the screen.

"There's nothing coming up under Nate Mineke and Discount Mufflers."

They both turned as they heard a shout behind them.

"What's going on?"

Piney had walked into the room demanding to know what Juice and Jax thought they were doing. Jax turned angrily to the older man, noticing Piney as he sat down on one of the tables looking resigned to the fact that his father was being stubborn and was going to cause tension. He glanced over at Juice and noticed that he looked apprehensive about the situation they were in and also he noticed one other thing as he looked at his lover, Juice looked as though he was in pain but with there being others in the room he knew he could not ask Juice about it until they were alone together. Jax was not happy to see that Piney was still at the clubhouse having disregarded his earlier order to go to the cabin and lay low out of the way of the local law and the ATF.

"Thought I told you to go underground?"

Piney glared back at Jax, he regarded the VP like a second son but at that moment he wanted to back hand him for his impertinence and disrespect towards him.

"Nate reached out; they are in some survivalist bunker just outside Woodbridge forest."

"Great." Jax told him, "You got to set up a meet."

Piney did not seem pleased about the way that Jax was talking to him and went to get into the VP's face but his son stepped between them and would not let his father dig himself into a bigger hole that what he was already in because of his friendship with Mineke.

"Then what happens?" he asked. Jax was getting fed up with the attitude he was getting from Piney.

"They killed three people in cold blood. What do you think is going to happen?"

As Piney was about to launch himself again at Jax, Bobby and Chibs come through the door looking worried. Bobby had just spoken to Trammel and learned that the ATF had a warrant to rip the garage and the clubhouse apart. Jax was not happy and turned to a still fuming Piney.

"Cabin….NOW."

xXx

Jax stood outside the clubhouse with Juice, Chibs and Bobby as Piney finally left TM with Opie following him to make sure that he did go to the cabin and did not decide to go somewhere else instead. They were watching an unmarked sedan that was parked on the street just beyond the gates to TM. The car had been parked there all morning and the two guys inside the cage had been reporting on everything that had gone on the TM lot all morning to Stahl, their senior agent.

"We'll never be able to get these guns out of here." Juice said to the others, they could hear the worry in his voice as he voiced what they were all thinking.

Bobby looked towards the car. "Those feds open up those barrels and we've got a whole new charter…..Stockton Prison."

Jax grimaced as he listened to his brothers discussing their options, getting the guns out somehow under the noses of the ATF stooges who were watching from the car. In the end Jax turned to Bobby and told him to meet with Laroy.

"Tell Laroy he'll get his guns."

Chibs looked at the car with the two federal agents sitting in it.

"How are you going to get them out, Houdini them outta here?"

xXx

Later that afternoon the feds made their appearance, they sped into the lot with their tactical team hanging onto the outside of one of their vehicles. Screaming at Jax and a number of others who were sitting on the picnic table having their lunch.

"FEDERAL AGENTS. DON'T MOVE."

Everyone started to get down onto their knees, the feds pushing those who did not move fast enough, ordering them all to spread their legs and to place their hands behind their backs before handcuffing them. Juice felt a momentary flash of panic as the cuffs were snapped around his wrists as he lay on the ground remembering what had been done to him the last time he was in this position but he managed to control his fear. The agents and cops started to tear part the clubhouse and garage looking for the guns but they were out of luck. The guns had already been smuggled out the lot inside the tanker that had been empting the septic tank but the feds had been unaware of this and they had allowed it to leave without searching it.

As they searched for the guns, Agent Stahl walked past those who were lying on the ground. She stepped around them smirking at Bobby, Jax, Chibs, Juice and Half Sack as they lay on the uncomfortable ground trying to ease the pain and tensions in their necks that such a position caused. As Stahl walked past them, Juice glanced up at her and with a chuckle said.

"You smell nice."

All the sons who were lying on the ground and heard him, started to chuckle as well and Stahl stalked into the garage, annoyed that so far they had not been able to find the guns. One of the cops who had been ripping the clubhouse apart, approached were the sons were lying, cuffed on the ground. As he approached one of the agents held his hand up stopping him from getting any closer but the officer quickly told the agent that agent Stahl wanted the tech guy that the SONS had. The agent thought it was a little strange but he helped the officer haul Juice up and watched as he dragged him into the Clubhouse.

As soon as the cop and Juice entered the clubhouse, Juice was pushed into the one of the store rooms that led off to the back of the club; the cop had been waiting for his opportunity to ahold of Juice.

Juice stumbled as he was roughly pushed through the door and the cop was on him in a flash. He shoved Juice's face into the wall and manoeuvred himself so that he was pushed right up behind Juice, their bodies touching. He moved his hand and groped Juice, grinning as he heard Juice try and suppress a moan of pain that his hand had caused, smiling again he whispered into Juice's ear.

"You still sore? We'll have to do something about that won't we?"

There was a shout outside before he could do anything else to Juice and with a disgruntled grunt he pulled away from Juice and uncuffed him but as he was about to leave he turned back to Juice reaching out and caressing his cheek as he told him that he would see him later that night.


	8. AK51 Part 2

Stahl was pissed the raid on the SONS clubhouse and the garage that so many of them worked at, owned by Clay Morrow had been a total waste of time, well almost a waste. They had recovered the barrels but they had been empty. She was certain that the guns had been at the garage but they had somehow disappeared. At that moment one of the barrels was in in the office that Stahl had commandeered and she was sitting on top of it wondering what her next move would be when one of the agents stuck his head in through the door.

"Did you get anything out of the SONS tech guy?"

Stahl looked at her colleague in confusion.

"The SONS tech guy, one of the officers came over and said you wanted to question him while we were at TM. He took him inside the clubhouse, I assumed to you."

"I didn't ask to see the tech guy, why would I?"

Stahl was wondering what was going on and if the agent knew which of the officer's it had been. The agent shook his head but said he thought that it had been one of the officers they had borrowed from Lodi. As he left the office, Hale walked in holding a file.

"Well that was a waste of time. We've just had to release Clay Morrow on lack of evidence and his lawyer is now screaming about the heavy handedness of the local cops and the ATF officers who were involved in the raid. He is going to try and sue us for harassment and damage to the property of his client Clay Morrow."

"Well it wasn't a total waste of time, we may not have got the guns but we have learned how they are being transported in to the country and by whom."

"What do you mean?"

"These barrels are from Dunloe, Ireland, Real IRA territory and transported across the ocean with no oil in them except for the small amount at the top, in a special sealed compartment to fool anyone who might look. Under the compartment is where they hide the guns."

Stahl told Hale showing him just how the guns were hidden and transported inside the barrels. Hale was impressed not just with how the barrels worked but the fact that this meant that the SONS were in a new league. Links to a known terrorist organization put the club on the radar of homeland security. This information made him smile as he thought of the day when SAMCRO would no longer have any sway over Charming.

xXx

At the cabin, Opie and Piney were waiting for the others to join them. Piney was still sulking at the way he had been treated by Jax earlier that day. He could understand where the younger man was coming from but he would have preferred if the little shit had shown him more of the respect he was due as one of the founding members of the club.

He and Opie heard bikes pull up and it was not long before Bobby and Jax walked into the cabin, glancing at the two men sitting on the couches, smoking. Piney informed Jax that Nate had called wanting to make a deal for the rest of the AK51's and Opie told them that Russell knew that no one would touch the guns because of the ATF raid and he wanted them all for ten grand. Bobby scowled and looked at Jax.

"Shit, those guns are worth ten times that."

Jax pondered for a moment about what to do before coming to a decision, looking at Piney as he did so.

"Alright set it up, me and Opie will make the run."

"You can't make the run without me, they won't trust you." Piney told Jax as he hauled himself up from the couch to stand in front of his VP.

"You okay with tying up loose ends."

Piney half turned and looked at Jax.

"You know you don't have to ask me that."

"Alright."

xXx

Chibs, Juice and Half Sack had found themselves getting the shit job, figuratively and literally! They were at the tanker depot looking for the tanker that had the son's gun in it. They were all dressed in dark blue or black clothing and both Juice and Half Sack had black hoodies on, their hoods covering their faces.

All three had rubber gloves on as well and none of them were particularly looking forward to the jog of retrieving their guns, Juice walked down one row of trucks with Half Sack not far behind him, he was not totally paying a mind to where he was going, he was more concerned with what the cop had said to him earlier that day. He was also wishing that he had stood up to the cop and told him where to go right from the beginning but he had been so scared that the guy would cause trouble for the club, he heard a sharp whistle and saw Chibs wave his arms in Juice's and Half Sack's direction pointing to the tanker not far from his position.

"This is the one boys."

Chibs grabbed hold of the lever at the back of the tanker and them both to step back as he pulled the lever down. Putrid liquefied shit with guns floating in it flowed out of the back of the tanker splattering down on the concrete in an increasing pool at their feet. The smell was horrendous and all three men started to gag as soon as the smell hit their nostrils. Trying their best not to throw up and add to the tide of shit that was swirling around on the ground at their feet, they gingerly stepped forward to retrieve their guns.

"OH JESUS."

Chibs yelled as he did his best not to lose his dinner, he signalled to his brothers who unfortunately had pulled the short straw with him to grab the guns. Both moved forward trying desperately not to gag and did their best to grab the guns, Chibs meanwhile stood back and let them do all the work. Ten minutes later all the guns were loaded in the back of the garage's work van and Chibs got in to drive it to the cabin.

xXx

Piney, Bobby and Opie were at the cabin with Jax and Chibs getting the guns and explosives ready for the delivery to Nate Mineke and his friends the following day when Clay walked in after being released by the ATF and Hale earlier that day but when he had gone to pay Gemma's bail, Hale had informed him that she did not want him posting her bail and he had spent a fruitless twenty minutes trying to persuade his old lady. In the end he had left her and rode to the cabin.

While Clay and the others were talking, Opie slipped out to make a phone call and take a quick breather. He dialled Juice's number eagerly, he had not been able to talk to Juice all day and he just wanted to make sure he was alright. He needed to know that Juice was alright, he had not only looked in pain earlier in the day but tired as well and there had been something in his eyes that Opie could not place and it had frightened him a little. His phone rang for a few minutes before it was picked up and he heard with relief Juice's voice on the other end.

"Hi Opie, everything alright?"

"Yeah great, how are you doing? Since your little trip up shit creek." He smiled at the thought of how Juice had been one of the unfortunate ones to have to go and retrieve the guns from the tanker yard.

"Oh very funny Opie. Do you know how bad that it? You old man has a lot to answer for and I don't mean just the fiasco with Nat Mineke before you kick off lover, most of the shit in that tanker came from your father, it reeked."

Opie grinned and chuckled as he listened to his lover bitch about his old man and everything he had had to deal with tonight. He asked him what he planned to do for the rest of the night and Juice told him he was going to jump back into the shower again because he still smelt of shit. The clothes he had worn that night had been thrown in the trash, there was no way he was going to get the smell out of them and he was not willing to wear them again. As Juice continued to moan about the night's activities, Chibs came out of the door and he assumed that Opie was on the phone to his old lady, Donna when he heard him say, "Never mind sweetheart, you'll get over it."

xXx

After he said goodbye, Juice flipped his phone shut and placed it back onto his dresser and headed back into his bathroom, he was so preoccupied with what he was doing that he did not hear the back door open quietly and someone enter his home. The intruder could hear the shower and they smiled before they made their way to Juice's bedroom which was just down the hallway from where they were standing. Entering Juice's bedroom the intruder noted that it was neat and tidy and that the bathroom was just off of it. After ten minutes off waiting the intruder heard the shower stop and they hid behind the door as Juice walked back into the room, a towel tied around his hips.

As Juice reached forward to pick up the clean clothes he had left on his bed he heard the door behind him slam shut and he whirled around to find the cop behind him in his bedroom.

"What the hell are you doing here? Get out."

The cop smiled sadistically at Juice and told him he was not going anywhere until he had got what he had come for. Juice stared at the man as though he thought he was off his rocker and tried to get past him so he could try and get him out of his house but the cop pushed back and before long Juice found himself being pinned down on his bed.

Juice was not going to let him get his own way and fought to get the cop off him but the struggling caused the towel to come lose from around his waist and he was soon exposed to the man on top of him, much to his delight. The creep ginned at Juice and the sight beneath him and for a moment he was distracted. Juice took the opportunity to twist his body and dislodge the cop, scrambling quickly off the bed to try and grab his gun that was still lying on his dresser but he was not fast enough and he soon found himself being flung back across the bed. Juice's head connected with the headboard and he was knocked unconscious.

xXx

The following morning Opie after dropping his father off after the meet drove to Juice's house, parking outside. He saw that Juice's bike was parked in the driveway and he knocked on the door but got no answer. He thought it strange and pulled his phone out, ringing Juice's number, almost immediately he heard Juice's prepay ringing inside the house and he became even more concerned, slipping around the side of the house and going through the back gate, he saw Juice's back door standing wide open and he pulled his gun out as he entered the kitchen.

Calling out Juice's name he made his way into the silent house but there was no sign of Juice, so he made his way to his lover's bedroom. He pushed the door open and froze in shock at the sight within…..


	9. AK51 Aftermath

_The previous night….._

Cops POV

I knew that tonight was going to be the night that I was going to get myself some fine Puerto Rican ass and it was a good ass. I knew that much from fondling and fingering it the way I had in that motel room about a week ago in Nevada. His ass was muscular and tight, just the way I liked it. After the raid on the clubhouse I had gone back to the station, waiting long enough to put in my report before slipping out to go back to watching my prize.

I couldn't wait for the night to come and I parked across from his home after he had left the garage at the end of the day. I had already checked out his home, when he had been in Nevada, I had broken in and checked the place out and so knew the lay out of it pretty well and was about to leave my car when I noticed him leaving the house. He was dressed in dark clothing and I knew he was up to no good. He met up with a couple of other Sons at a tanker depot and I watched from a distance as he and the other two searched for something. After a little while they seemed to find what they had been searching for and I saw the one with a scarred face grasp a lever a the back of one of the tankers and then I saw shit with what looked like plastic covered parcels flow out of the back of the tanker. It was only when I hear the Scotsman shout "Grab the guns" that I realised what they doing.

'Clever,' I thought. 'That was how they got the guns out but not clever enough,' I now had something else to blackmail Juice with. I waited until they had collected all the guns and placed them in the van before following Juice back to his place.

I waited for about half an hour after he got back to his place before I enter his home and made my way to his bedroom, I could hear him on the phone talking to someone and telling them he was going to have another shower and knew that I would not have long to go before he was mine.

He entered the room with just a towel wrapped around his waist, still unaware that I was in his home and he did not become aware of me until I slammed the door shut behind him as he reached for the clothes that had left on his bed. Whirling around he stared at me before telling me to get out of his home, he tried to push past me and I pushed back knocking backwards onto his bed. During our struggles his towel had become loose and I could see his cock beneath me and for the moment that I was distracted he twisted his hips and managed to dislodge me, scrambling off his bed in an attempt to get to the gun that I could see on his dresser but I was too fast for him and grabbed him around the waist hauling him backwards again, this time when he landed back on the bed he slammed his head against the headboard and was knocked out.

As he slumped down onto the bed, stunned and semi-conscious I swore but then as I gazed down at his naked body on the bed a thought came to mind, 'maybe I can fuck him back to consciousness.' I grabbed hold of him and flipped him over on to his stomach, spreading his legs wide so that I could kneel between his sweet thighs and his back entrance was exposed to me. I reached into the pocket of my jacket that I had discarded and pulled out a bottle of lube, pulling of the lid; I poured some onto my fingers and dribbled some down onto his ass before I inserted my fingers into his nice tight ass. After I finished lubing him up as much as I could, I grabbed my cock that was already hard and pushed it against his opening but despite the amount of lube I had used I still found it hard getting the bulbous head of my penis past into his as. Finally the sphincter muscles of his opening gave way and I was in. Juice had still not regained consciousness and as I rode him, I could feel myself getting angry, I had wanted him to feel what was happening to him, to feel me riding him without mercy but he did not.

Just as I came deep inside him I heard a moan from him and realised that he had at last regained consciousness and I wanted to see the look of horror on his face as he realised what I had just done to him so I flipped him over onto his back so that I could see his eyes. He was still pretty groggy but I could see the pain and fear in them as I leant forward to kiss him but that was the last thing I saw or felt as a blinding pain suddenly flashed through my head and I slumped forward, descending into darkness…

_The following morning…._

When Opie opened the door he stared in shock at the scene before him, Juice was lying curled up with his comforter around him on the floor but that was not what shocked Opie the most, it was the body that lay on Juice's bed, sheets stained with blood and already stiff with rigor mortis, the remains of a lamp lying close to it.

Opie crossed the room over to Juice who had not moved since Opie had pushed the door open and knelt down next to him. He pulled Juice up into his arms, he could see that his lover was in shock and as soon as Opie had put his arms around him, Juice started to tremble and he could see a single tear start to slide down his cheek.

"He….h…h…he's dead, issssssnt he?"

Opie holding Juice in his arms trying to comfort him told him what he already knew.

"I'm afraid so, who was he Juice?"

"He…..he was a c…c…c…cop."

"A COP!"

Juice nodded and stared down at the floor; Opie stared at the body and knew they had to get rid of it and quick. He heard Juice begin to start talking again.

"He said he was going to hurt the club if I didn't do what he wanted."

"What do you mean, what did he want Juice?"

"He wanted me t….tt…to have s…ss…sex with him," Juice stammered. "But I couldn't do it so I hit him with the lamp."


	10. Old Bones

Opie got the body wrapped up in one of the sheets from the bed and went to get some plastic sheeting that he knew was in Juice's garage, he knew he had to get rid of the body and quickly. He had left Juice still curled up on the floor in his bedroom the comforter still wrapped tightly around his body but Juice had gradually managed to get himself up from the floor, he felt dirty and needed a shower to get rid of the feeling of that man on him and inside him. He managed to stumble down the hallway to his bathroom, he hadn't meant to lie to Opie but he couldn't bear to think what he would think of him if he told what had really happened the night before.

He managed to make it to the bathroom and stumbled inside and dropping the comforter before he stepped into his shower and turned the water on before he crumpled to the floor, he pulled his legs up and started to cry softly as the memories of the night before resurfaced.

When he had got back from the tanker yard he had been in a bad need of a shower, the smell of shit seemed to permeate from every pore of his body, he had disposed of his clothes that he had worn straight into the trash, and he couldn't bear touching them again. It had taken two showers before he could get rid of the smell and even then he was certain in the back of his mind that he would smell it for days to come.

After he had finished showering the second time he had gone to put on the clothes that he had left on his bed and he had not been aware that the cop who had been harassing him had broken into his home and was waiting for him in his bedroom. At least not until he had heard the door slam shut behind him and he had whirled round to find him leering at him.

He remembered that he had tried to push past him but the guy had pushed back, knocking Juice back onto his bed and pinning him there, he had managed to distract him for just a moment and had made a dive across the room towards his gun where he could see it on his dresser but the cop had managed to grab him again and then slam him back onto the bed, Juice recalled hitting his head on the headboard and then nothing until he had come to and felt the guy on top of him and inside him.

FLASHBACK

Juice slowly opened his eyes and he could feel a weight on top of him, then a burning sensation as he felt something being forced inside him and he realised with horror that it was the cop, the guy had not even noticed that Juice had started to regain consciousness when he had been slamming into him and it was not until a particularly painful thrust that he heard Juice whimper beneath him. He had pulled out of Juice almost tenderly like a lover but to Juice it felt like his innards was being pulled out and he was unable to suppress another agonized groan. Juice had lain there gasping and then the cop had flipped him over so he could hurt him again or that was what Juice thought he was going to do when the guy leaned forward over him, his hand stretched out to the side of him and he felt it land on something heavy. He didn't hesitate and brought the object down hard, crashing on the back of his attackers head.

END FLASHBACK

So now Juice was sitting on the floor of his shower, sobbing for everything that had been done to him and feeling guilty over lying to Opie. He reached for his phone that was on the floor and phoned for the only person who he knew could help.

Chibs.

xXx

At that moment, Chibs was at TM watching the prospect beat up Lowell in the ring when he heard his phone go off, flipping it open he saw that it was Juice.

"Hey what's up kid?"

He listened for a few moments to what Juice had to say before he hung up and as he walked back to the others he heard Jax tell Clay and Tig that Unser was going to be out of town, looking at some old bones that had been found, considering what Juice had just told him he thought that someone was looking down on Charming kindly, getting the law out of town for them.

"I need to borrow the van Clay?"

"What do you need it for?"

"I need to pick something up; it's too big to go on my bike."

"Okay, just have it back before we need it tomorrow."

"Yea, course not a problem."

xXx

It took Chibs all of fifteen minutes to drive to Juice's house and he was surprised to see a bike as well as Juice's outside in his driveway. He realised as he looked at it that it was Opie's and he wondered for a moment what was going on.

As he got out of the van he saw Opie walk into Juice's house from the garage carrying some plastic sheeting and he followed him. Calling out to him, letting him know he was there before he shot him by accident thinking he might be someone else.

"Hey Opie, what are yea doin ere?"

Opie heard Chibs behind and turned to see the Scotsman coming down the hallway behind him.

"I could ask you the same thing?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as he did so.

"Juice called me, said there was a problem here and asked me to come over."

Chibs nodded towards the plastic in Opie's hands.

"You are using that to dispose of the problem?"

Opie glanced down at the plastic he was holding and nodded, "Yeah….I takes it you know what the problem is?"

"I do. Where's Juice?"

"Taking a shower but….." Opie paused for a moment before continuing. "I'm worried about him; he's been in there an awful long time."

Nodding at Opie's words, "I'll go check on him, if you don't mind finishing wrapping the parcel up, securely."

"Okay."

Opie stood to one side and allowed the older man to pass him and head towards Juice's bathroom.

xXx

"Juice….It's Chibs…..Open the door."

Chibs knocked softly on the door before testing the handle to see if the door was locked. The handle turned and he was shocked to see Juice on the floor, his arms wrapped around his knees and his head lying on them. He could see the Juice's eyes were red rimmed and it looked as though he might be crying still, he could hear a few quiet sobs coming from him.

He knelt down on the floor next to Juice before reaching out, lightly touching the younger man on the shoulder and was slightly shocked as he felt Juice flinch when he touched him. Juice had told him on the phone that he had been hurt but he had not gone into details and his reaction to being touch made Chibs more concerned about what had happened.

He knew all about Juice's sexual preferences, he had discovered it by accident one night when he had gone to visit a friend in Lodi and had stopped at a club not realising what sort of club it was. It had been when he had gone to the bar for a beer and one of the patrons had come on to him that he realised that he was in a gay bar and he had quickly left but on the way out he had bumped into two guys making out in the parking lot and not realised at first that one of them had been Juice. It was not until he had got on his bike and ridden for a few miles that he had realised who it was.

The following day he had pulled Juice to one side to find out if he was right and Juice had begged him not to out him to the club, he had assured him that he would do no such thing, he had no intention of telling anyone what he had seen or heard that night.

"Juice….Can you hear me?"

He saw Juice slowly lift his face and look at him, anguish clear in his eyes and he could see that there were bruises on the side of his face and on the back of his head where he had hit the headboard. He slowly reached forward to check to make sure it was just bruising and to make sure he had no other injuries but as soon as his fingers lightly touched the bruised area the kid hissed and moved backwards and Chibs saw the bruising on the lower part of Juice's body, his chest and his legs.

"Juice…you have bruising on your legs…did intercourse take place?"

Juice's lower lip started to tremble and he shook his head but he was unable to look Chibs in the eyes as tears started to tumble from his eyes again and he glanced back to the ground, closing his eyes and Chibs heard him begin to whimper again.

"Juice look at me….did he force himself on you?"

Juice still wouldn't look at his friend and as he started to shake more, Chibs pulled him into his arms, hugging him like a small child, rubbing comforting circular movements on his back as he had him.

"Ssssshhh…it's going to be alright….come on, you're going to be alright."

Outside the door, Opie heard everything that was said and heard his lover start to cry as Chibs comforted him. He wanted to be the one to comfort Juice but he knew that no one knew about them and he did not know Chibs well enough to trust him. He realised that Juice had lied to him when he said nothing had happened and could not understand why his lover had not been able to tell him the truth, did he think that Opie would not believe him. He wanted more than ever to barge into the room and console his lover but fear made him hold back, fear of what would happen if his wife found out or worse still if the club found out and all he could do was listen outside the room in the hallway while the man he loved was consoled by another.


	11. The Pull

Opie tried to forget what he had heard outside Juice's bathroom and got on with disposing of the remains of the bastard who had hurt his lover. As he worked he couldn't help feeling angry that Juice had lied to him when he had asked him what had happened, telling that nothing had happened, that he had managed to fight the guy off before intercourse had happened between them. Why was he able to tell Chibs the truth and not him, after all he was supposed to be Juice's boyfriend, not Chibs? The more he thought about it the angrier he became and he was unaware of Chibs entering the room and watching him as he wrapped the body up for disposal.

"Is that the bastard who tried to hurt Juicy boy?"

Opie turned his head and glanced over his shoulder at the older man. He had not heard him leave the bathroom and enter the room behind him and for an older guy he was surprisingly light on his feet. Opie knew that Chibs use to be a boxer in his youth and despite his age he was still able to pack quite a mean punch now.

"Yeah, this is the bastard." He paused for a moment bit knowing whether to confront the other man with what he knew but instead chose to pretend that he had not been standing outside the bathroom, listening to every word that had passed between Juice and Chibs.

"Is Juice alright? You were in there a long time talking with him….He not hurt is he?"

Chibs shrugged, watching Opie wrap the corpse before answering him.

"Yeah, he's alright. A bit shaken with what has happened but he'll get over it. He's got a large lump on the back of his head and some bruising but he's gonna be fine."

Chibs hated lying to a brother but Juice had practically begged him to say nothing of his injuries to Opie, of course neither of them knew that pie had been listening outside the door. He turned his attention back to the corpse and tied the last of the knots.

Opie nodded at Chibs words knowing full well that the Scotsman was lying.

"I'm going to get rid of this bastard. You coming with me or are you going to stay here and help Juice?"

"I think it might be wise if I stay here and help Juice straighten out this place. Unless you need some help with disposal."

"Nah I'm good." Opie replied as he stood, hoisting the plastic covered body over his shoulder and looking at the Scotsman. "Just make sure that Juice is okay, yeah?"

"Aye I will."

As Opie lifted the plastic covered body and removed it to the van, Chibs returned to the bathroom to look after Juice.

_A few days later…_

Several of the guys were gathered around the table in the chapel talking about how they were going to come up with the 200k that McCeevy and the real IRA wanted.

"Where are we with McCeevy money?" Jax asked looking around the table at his assembled brothers before any of them could answer Clay walked into the room, placing a holdall on the table.

"Called in every marker we have, "he said as he sat down in his customary place at the head of the table.

"Picked up another 40k."

At that moment Tig ambled into the room, closing the door behind him and tossed a bundle of money on the table.

"Bobby got a gig; the owner fronted the pay, 5k."

Clay grimaced. "We need another 250k"

He glanced around the room his eyes settling on Chibs.

"McCeevy heads back tae Ireland tomorrow; he is going tae need the whole 200k by tonight." He said looking at Clay.

Clay looked thoughtful before replying.

"We got one more place to go."

Jax looked at Clay in puzzlement.

The Porn Queen." Clay replied, grinning.

Tig laughed, "Otto's old lady."

Clay's grin got wider, as he chewed his lit stogie.

"Gemma says that Luanne is picking up 2k a week just from ad revenues from her website."

Juice who until that moment had been silent at the table, listening to the conversation around him, piped up.

"Yeah, factor in the membership fees, downloads, she's making three times that much."

Jax leaned forward in his seat considering carefully what he had just heard.

"Let Gemma talk to Luanne, they're tight. Keeps us clear of her."

Clay thought for a moment about what his VP had just said and nodded.

"That makes sense."

"Well I'm going to St Thomas's anyway, I'll talk to Ma," he paused for a moment before continuing.

"The kid gets out of the toaster today." He grinned as he delivered the news to his brothers.

There were general congratulations from everyone present and he heard Tig say gleefully.

"You get to hold your kid."

Jax raised his loosely clenched fist and knocked it against Clay's in celebration, Juice and Chibs doing the same to him.

Clay smiled, "At least one good thing is happening today."

xXx

Later in the day the men were gathered together again, this time at the bar as they examined and discussed what Jax had found in the cab of a crashed oil tanker, Opie leaning against the door jamb that led to the store room behind the bar, he was still feeling bad about what had happened to Juice and the two of them had not spent any time together since then as a couple.

He had tried to talk to Juice earlier that day but Juice had brushed him off, looking at paperwork in his hands and pretending he had not seen Opie trying to talk to him. That had hurt Opie and made him angry again, he knew he shouldn't be angry with Juice, that it was not his fault and that he was only reacting to what had been done to him but he had looked at Opie as though he was not even there. He listened to his brothers as they argued about the drugs found before speaking.

"Darby runs his meth lab out of the diesel yard in Pope. It's where the mill drivers score their shit."

Juice had picked up the packet, turning it in his hand as he looked at it.

"This is definitely Darby's shit, it has been stepped on so many times, and it's hardly a narcotic."

Tig was feeling argumentative.

"See Darby's making his move into Charming, dealing at the lumber mill, Clay we got to send this Nazi Prick a clear message, now…"

Jax shook his head at Tig arguing back against what Tig proposed.

"Why don't we just go speak to the driver, ask him where he brought the meth."

Clay thought for a moment before answering, nodding at Jax and Opie.

"GO!"

As Jax and Opie left the room, Opie glanced at Juice who was sitting at the bar next to Chibs, sitting too close for Opie's liking. Juice had been sticking like glue to Chibs side since the attack and although he knew there was nothing going on between the two men other than friendship he couldn't help feeling jealous. He knew it was irrational but he could not help what he was feeling, he so wanted to take Juice into his arms and comfort him, tell him that everything was going to be alright but he couldn't. So instead he shook his head sadly and followed Jax out of the clubhouse, as he left he heard Chibs talking to Clay.

"How's McCeevy's cash bailing up."

"Luanne came up with 55k, we need another 15. We've got six hours to find it."

xXx

Clay and Tig left the bar area, leaving Chibs and Juice behind with the prospect. Chibs looked at the kid, getting his attention as he leaned closer to him.

"If yae ever want to get yea top rocker prospect, than yea beter bring 15k to the table, sharpish….Yea got me."

He tapped the kid on the side of the head as does Juice before they both left the room, the prospect smiled dejectedly at their words.

xXx

A few hours later, Half Sack and Juice were out on a job picking up a car that would not start. Half Sack was doing all the work while Juice sat on the back wheel of the tow truck, digging at his finger nails with an old nail he had picked up somewhere. Half sack glanced at Juice as he hitched the car up to the tow truck, he had noticed that Juice had been a bit quiet for the last few days and a little bit jumpy around folks as well but until now he had said nothing. The way that Juice had been acting reminded him of a mate in the army who had been attacked and he wanted to ask Juice if the same thing had been done to him but he did not want to look stupid.

As the car was being lifted up to the truck he noticed an ambulance pull into the lot across the street at the diner, the driver hopping gout and running into the diner. He noticed that the driver had left the keys in the Cab r he hoped he had, he didn't have them in his hands. He glanced at Juice who was still more interested in his nails than working, he pressed the switch that stopped the winching the car.

"Dude, handle this for me."

Moving away from the tow truck and Juice he ran towards the diner and the parked ambulance. Juice looked up when Half Sack asked him to take over, looking with a small amount of curiosity at what it was the prospect was doing.

"Where you going?" he asked him.

"To get my top rocker."

Juice couldn't believe what Half Sack had just said and watched in disbelief, muttering to himself as it started to dawn on him what Half Sack was about to do.

"Oh no you're not."

He continued to watch as the prospect hopped in to the unattended ambulance, quickly throwing it into reverse and speeding out of the diner's lot taking off down the road. Juice raised his eyebrows as the ambulance disappeared from view.

"Yes you are." He muttered, almost in disbelief, still not quite believing what he had just seen.

xXx

Juice was hauling the door to the garage down to hide the stolen ambulance when he felt someone behind him; he turned with no small amount of fear to find Tig right behind him, glaring menacingly.

"So you stole an ambulance?"

Juice looked panicked for a moment before he shook his head and pointed at half Sack.

"I had nothing to do with it."

Half Sack was looking pleased with himself as Tig and clay looked at him.

"Yeah these things are like a 100k."

Clay who had come into the garage was leaning against the door jam in the open doorway of the office.

"Yeah, they are, lots of people will buy them like federal agencies and shit."

Half Sack tried to look pleased but he noticed that Clay had a sour look on his face and it did not bode well to him.

"So you want me to sell a stolen vehicle to the federal government," he asked the nervous prospect. The guys in the garage laughed at his words and the prospects misfortune. Half Sack tried to speak, to get his point across.

"No, ah….something like Uncle Freddie's Infirmary or something." He gulped nervously.

Juice was standing next to Half Sack and he grinned at Half Sack's predicament. It had been a few days since he had smiled. He had his arms crossed in front of him and he had his moth covered and was grinning behind his hand. Chibs glanced at him, pleased to see him smiling.

The guys continued to rib the poor prospect until Jax walked in to the garage, pointing to the ambulance when he saw it. Asking what was going on. Chibs was laughing as he got Half Sack in a neck hold, grinning at what his prospect had done. Jax pulled out a wad of cash and informed everyone present that they were flush for the Irish.


	12. The Pull Part 2

Juice was still at the clubhouse even though it was quite late at night, he didn't want to go home back to the place where he had been attacked in his own bedroom. In fact he had not been into his bedroom in days, he had slept on the couch in his lounge when he had been there, he still could not bear to go into the room. Chibs had helped him clean the room up when Opie had removed and disposed of the cop's body and although it now looked like nothing had happened in there, he still could not go in there. The few times he had tried, he had felt like he was going to be sick and had started shaking.

At that moment he was sat in front of his laptop which was on the end of the bar looking at engine parts for a knucklehead. Or at least he was trying to, for some reason he was finding it hard to concentrate on the job at hand. At the pool table Opie was playing pool with Jax but every so often he glanced over at Juice to see what he was doing, after a while Jax noticed that Opie's mind wasn't on the game and he watched Opie more closely, he saw him glancing furtively at Juice when he thought that no one else was looking. In the end he put his stick down and asked Opie in a whispered voice what was going on between him and Juice.

"Nothing."

"Oh come on Opie, you've been sneaking glances at Juice all evening. Whenever you thought no one could see and you could get away with it. What's going on man?"

Opie shook his head, "I can't tell you Jax."

Jax was a little annoyed that his oldest friend would not tell him what was going on, he had felt a degree of tension between the two men all day. In fact he had not seen them talk to each other for days, he recalled seeing Opie trying to talk to Juice earlier in the day but Juice, he had noticed had done his best to ignore Opie.

"I'm not asking you as your friend Opie, I'm asking as your VP. What's going on between you two?"

Opie looked like he was not going to answer Jax but as he opened his mouth to answer him, Jax's phone went off. Jax grabbed his phone and saw that the caller I.D. was Clay, answering it, he held his hand up to Opie as he listened.

"Shit."

The guys in the clubhouse glanced up when they heard Jax swear. Looking over at their VP they saw he was on the phone and that he had gone rather pale. Flipping the phone shut he looked at those assembled in the room.

"That was Clay, he and Tig were at the bar meeting with our Irish contact. Two Mayans came in and started shooting, Tig and Clay are alright but the Irishman they were meeting isn't. We've gotta go."

Without another word Jax led the guys out of the clubhouse towards their bikes, getting on he noticed that Opie looked relieved that that he had not had to answer Jax's question. As Chibs went towards his bike, Jax called out to him.

"We'll need some way of getting the Irishman here if he needs medical attention you, Juice and Half Sack ride in the ambulance."

* * *

Clay sat at the bar of the now shot up Irish pub, he turned as he heard the door open and saw the guys walk into the bar led by Jax. Jax moved to where his stepfather and prez was sitting asking him "if he was alright." Chibs and Juice moved to where the injured Irish man, Cameron Hayes was laying on the ground squatting down next to the injured man. Chibs checked him before he and Juice helped the man to stand. Clay was concerned how they were going to get the guy to the clubhouse, Half Sack was standing behind him and he heard him say "Don't have to worry about that."

The door to the bar banged open to show Juice and Chibs helping the injured man out of the door, they half carried him over to the stolen ambulance that was sitting in the parking lot and helped him into the back of the vehicle. They laid him down on to the stretcher and Chibs started checking his injuries, he pulled a syringe and some bandages down from a cabinet above the stretcher. Cameron looked at the Scots man as he was pulling stuff down.

"Ye know what ye are doing Scotsman?"

Chibs grinned manically as he ripped open a package with his teeth, spitting the unwanted piece of the wrapping down onto the floor.

"Five months in the British army as a medic before I was court martialled."

"Five months." Hayes almost shrieked.

As he and the two sons were bounced around in the back of the ambulance as it made its way to the SAMCRO clubhouse. The vehicle pulled into the TM lot pretty soon and was driven straight into the garage. Half sack jumping out of the cab and moving around to the back of the ambulance pulling the doors open, while Chibs was still checking the extent of Hayes injuries when Jax asked him what he needed.

"Much more than what I've got here at the clubhouse Jacky boy."

Jax nodded, "I'll give Tara a call, get you what you need. Do us list and I'll go get it."

* * *

Cameron came too briefly when Juice and Chibs hauled him up onto the reaper table in the church, thick plastic had been hastily pulled over the top of the table to keep blood and any other bodily fluid from ruining it and also in case Hayes died any DNA being left behind. He gasped as they none too gently placed him down on top of the table and the pain in his arse flared as full consciouceness returned.

Chibs was being as careful as he could and he was also trying to keep Juice from zoning out at the sight of all the blood that Cameron was losing, he knew the kid hated the sight of blood but at the moment he needed him to keep doing what he was doing and help Chibs save the life of the man currently on the table before them.

"Hey kid yah with me?"

Juice glanced over at the man on the other side of the table and gave a weak smile signalling his friend that he okay but in reality he wasn't. He just wanted to get out of the room, away from the blood and the smell of it. It was reminding him of the night he killed the cop in his house and he was beginning to freak out because of it.

Chibs could see that Juice despite his smile was not doing so well and he leant forward and placed a hand on his shoulder sqeezing it lightly.

"Hey come on, stay with me here alright."

Looking deep into his eyes and nodding at him trying to get Juice to focus on the job at hand. He heard Haye's groan on the table and realised that he had come around, he checked the mans pulse which was still quite taccycardic and sighed inwardly to himself, hoping that Jax would soon get back with the medical supplies he needed.


	13. Hell Followed

It had been a long night for all the sons concerned but most of all for Chibs and Juice and it did not look like the morning was going to get any easier. Earlier they had tried, well Chibs had tried to stop the bleeding from the wound that Hayes had received in the shooting at the bar but without the proper medical equipment, Chib's had been able to do little more than slow the bleeding down.

Chibs had tried to stop the bleeding more by removing the bullet but the bullet had nicked one of the major veins, as Chibs had pulled the bullet out he had to leap back as a spray of blood shot out of the hole and without thinking, he grabbed ahold of poor Juice who had also leapt back, cursing at the sight of the blood as it pumped out of the man who lay on the table before them.

Grabbing Juice's hand and yelling, "Come here." He had hauled him forward, Chibs had then jammed one of Juice's fingers into the gaping hole, stopping the blood flow and he hoped saving not only Hayes's life but hopefully his leg as well. Juice had not been pleased when he had been grabbed although the kid had said nothing Chib's could see what the effect of having to stop the blood was having on the kid, Juice was heaving trying not to be sick but he could not relent and he yelled in Juice's ear.

"JUST KEEP YAH FINGER IN HIS ARSE."

xXx

Now Juice was sat wearily in one of the chairs that had been pulled up next to the table, his finger still jammed in one of Hayes's bullet holes. He really was not feeling comfortable but he knew if he pulled his finger out, one or two things would happen, first Hayes would probably bleed to death and then Chibs if not Clay would kill him.

He heard a pained groan coming from Hayes and realised that the injured man had woken up. Leaning up he leant forward to see if he needed anything, Hayes was blinking as he tried to blearily look around him, he was aware of Juice standing at his side and he realised through his drugged pain that he could feel something in his ass, glancing at Juice he asked.

"Where's the end of your hand?"

Juice looked uncomfortable as he answered, standing up to glance at his bloody hand and fingers, one of which was plugged up the Irishman's ass.

"It's…..ah….my finger is plugging up one of your bullet holes."

Hayes moved his head, glancing forward for a moment as it clicked in his brain, just where it was Juice's finger was.

"You got yah finger jammed up my ass?"

"NO….no….well technically yes. Well my fingers not jammed up your ass because that would be gay. It's kinda jammed in your ass, which is still gay but in a good way."

Hayes started to panic slightly as he asked Juice if he was going to die and then he heard footsteps and with a sigh of relief realised that Chib's had come back into the room.

"Scotsman, need you guys to do me a favour. Need you to take Hefner out."

Chibs put a bottle of whiskey to Hayes mouth and waited until the Irishman had downed a few gulps before he told him to be easy but Hayes was having none of it, insisting that it had to be done. Chibs promised him, Juice asking him if he meant killing the port official. Chibs looked at him as if he could not believe the kid was so stupid.

"No….I think he means dinner and a movie." He told Juice sarcastically.

xXx

As Opie moved towards his bike, he spotted his pickup as it entered the lot.

"Oh shit."

He changed direction as he spotted his wife getting out of the truck, she looked pissed and he knew she would be when he realised that he should have been at the mill.

"Where have you been? The Mill called, if you're not there by second shift, you're out of a job."

"Something came up, I was needed here."

Opie tried to pull Donna into his arms to placate her but she was having nothing of it, she was angry, no beyond angry that he had risked his job, the job that was keeping a roof over their heads for the sake of the damn club that had done nothing for them when he had been sent down for five years but that did not seem to make a difference to him and she had had enough. Screaming at Opie and hitting him as best she could as he tried to control her fists, she pulled away from him and told him to get his act together or that was it, she was leaving him, taking his kids and leaving him.

Storming off towards the pickup she did not bother to look back as he gazed after her sadly or to see Jax approach him and tell to go and deal with her and his job, that he was alright to go and do what the club needed done by himself. He pointed out to Opie that his priorities had to be Donna and the kids at that moment, nodding Opie agreed with him and running over to his bike, he mounted and rode out after his wife and the pickup truck.

xXx

Later that day after Tara had closed up the wound and thus freed Juice from his finger plugging job, Juice returned to his room to get cleaned up and to change out of his blood covered t-shirt. Turning on the shower, he stripped off his bloodied clothes and allowed the water to wash away the blood and sorrow that he had been feeling all day, he had not seen Opie since that morning and although he was still feeling a little uneasy about being touched by anyone the one thing he really wanted at that moment was a hug especially from Opie.

He slid down the wall of the shower, resting his eyes in his hands and tried to clear his mind of the awful images that were swarming around in his mind, it was not Hayes who he saw lying on the table bullet wounds in his ass but the copper whose head he had bashed in, a few nights before, his eyes accusing him and his hands seemed to be reaching out to him.

Shuddering he tried desperately to shut the images off but he seemed to have very little success and as the strain from the previous night's events seemed to take over he started to shake as tears started to flow down his face, silently he sobbed and was so intent on not making a sound that would alert his brothers to his state that he did not hear the sound of the door to his room opening nor the sound of footsteps as someone approached his shower.

The first he knew of someone being in the room with him was when he felt someone else's arms going around him and pulling him into a tight hug. Leaning into the person who was now sat in the shower with him getting just as wet as he, as the shower was still running he leaned into the person and knew from the smell of that persons aftershave who it was, he seemed as though he was going to pull away but the arms tightened around him unwilling to let him go and although he fought it for a moment in the end he gave in and let Chib's give him the much needed hug that he needed.

xXx

That evening around the picnic table out on the lot, the Samcro members spoke amongst themselves as others of their club cheered on two guys who were beating the hell out of each other in the ring. A decision needed to be made of what was going to be done concerning the corrupt port official that Hayes had asked Chib's to make sure was taken care of, in retaliation for what had been done to his cousin, Michael.

Clay was not all too happy about getting into becoming guns for hire but he could see that the rest of the guys had a point or two that made sense even Juice who was sitting next to Chibs made a good point about what needed to be done, about Heffner, the port official squeezing the Irish for more pay off cash, the kid had learned that if they took out the bent bastard that the Irish would give them back the money they had already paid for the guns plus a month of free guns.

During the discussion, Opie listened but did not put forward his thoughts; he seemed distant from his brothers at the table. Too many thoughts were going through his head at that moment, concern about his family and how they were going to get out of the financial mess they were in and his concern for Juice.

Ever since the morning following the night when the cop had tried to hurt Juice and had ended up paying for his actions with his life, Juice had been pulling away from him and although he desperately wanted to comfort Juice he had found himself unable to do so and the fact that Juice had seemed to turn to Chibs instead of him was starting to eat at him, making him doubt the relationship that he and Juice had.

The discussion continued for some time before it was decided what was to be done, Clay looking at Juice and Chibs asking them how it was going to done. Opie listened while Juice told them about Heffner's Sunday ritual, church with his wife and sex with his black girlfriend and Chibs saying that was where they were going to take him out, making it look like a white hate crime.

It was not until Clay asked who would do it that Opie spoke up, Jax tried to dissuade him but Opie was determined to do it, if not for the club than for the money he would get for doing it, that at least would sort out one of his current problems.

When Clay agreed Opie left the table going into the clubhouse to look for a beer but instead headed for one of the rooms, his wife had taken his kids to her parents and he was staying at the club until the hit, he was unaware that he was being followed until he was inside the room.

xXx

When Opie had said he would do the hit, Juice became concerned and followed him to the room that he was using at the moment, pushing into the room behind Opie. He waited until Opie had dropped his cut onto the chair before confronting him.

"Why are you doing this Opie?"

"Why shouldn't I, someone has to do it."

Juice moved closer to him before speaking again, putting his arms out towards his lover.

"But why you, you don't have anything to prove."

Opie stared down at the smaller man, not registering at first what Juice was saying.

"Nothing to prove, I have everything to prove that I still belong in this club, that I still have what it takes to be a member."

Juice backed up a little at the tense angry look he saw on Opie's face, disconcerted a little by the intenseness of it. He started to shake just a little but managed to control the panic that was threatening to take him over.

Opie saw the flash of fear that appeared in Juice's eyes as he started to get angry at his questioning of why he had to be the shooter and the slight tremble he tried to cover up of his lower lip by biting it as he stepped back from him.

He reached forward and grabbed Juice pulling him into a bear like hug when he tried to pull away from him, he could feel the tremors that were running through Juice's body and as he hugged him he rubbed soothing circles into his back as Juice sagged against him, leaning into his hug.

xXx

The following morning as Opie waited with Jax in the garage for Bobby to arrive, they discussed why he was doing this and Jax told him again that he thought it was a bad idea doing this job but Opie was not listening to him and when Bobby arrived they left to do the job.

All went well until it came to the time for Opie to pull the trigger but he froze and it was left to Bobby to pull the trigger, as both men fled the scene they did not see the curtain of one of the apartments twitch and a young girl look out seeing them leave the scene.

* * *

A/N: Sorry its been a while but I hope to catch up with this story now. As always please review :-)


	14. Better Half

The day had started early for the both Jax and Opie, they had been trying to fix a bike that had been brought in for a complete overhaul and both men worked silently as they thought about what had gone down a few days before. Jax reached into a drawer pulling out a spanner and moving back to the bike.

"When's Donna getting back?" he asked his oldest friend.

"This morning."

Opie confirmed as he tried to unscrew a nut that seemed to be soldered to the machine itself. He carried on working for a moment, grunting as the nut gradually unscrewed, pausing for a moment before speaking to Jax again.

"You haven't said much to since Oakland."

"I ain't got much to say I guess."

Jax worked on removing the bolts that kept the engine in place on the other side of the bike.

"It's done bro."

Both men carried on working as they both considered the events of the past few days, finally they were able to lift the engine off and while Jax went to deal with some paperwork in the office, Opie headed for the clubhouse to take a break.

Inside the clubhouse Bobby and Clay were sat relaxing at a table, taking a break also from the strains of the day. Opie sat down on one of the other tables as he considered how he was going to ask Clay for the money for the Heffner job, he really needed the money, he was already two payments behind on the mortgage and there were other bills that really needed to be paid, like yesterday.

"Hey Clay, is there any chance I can get paid for the Heffner job, I'm kinda behind on two of the house payments?"

"Of course you can, waiting for the money was not mandatory you know. You should have said."

Opie shrugged as if it was not as important as it was for him to get the money today, he was worried about the bank repossessing the house and the last thing he wanted was for his family to be out on the streets because he had not been able to provide for them.

"I didn't want to press for it, was thinking about the club, supporting it an all."

Bobby was sat astride one of the chairs, leaning on the back of the chair.

"I'll get the money out of the petty cash."

"Thanks Bobby…Clay."

Having got Clay to agree to pay him his cut for the job and the concerns about the house being reprocessed finally being put to rest he hoped, he went back to work, feeling a little better than he had when he had arrived at work that morning.

XXx

Later that day when Opie finally got home, the payment in his pocket he found Donna placing one of the kid's toys in a box packing up the house, he watched from the door as she continued to pack away not just their processions but their life together. He could not believe that Donna was carrying out the threat that she had made to him just before she had left to go visit her mother with the children a week before.

He felt angry that she would not support him and his need to continue being in the club, she didn't understand he knew but this was the only life he knew and he tried real hard to go straight, just as he had promised Donna that he would do but it was not working out, he knew that. He was not the old boy who could cut wood all day like Donna's dad or brother. He could and would not be happy with an everyday nine to five existence.

Placing the envelope containing the much needed money on the coffee table, he told Donna that finally they could get rid of some of the debt's they had hanging over them but he could see that it was not cutting it with her. He could see it in her eyes, she wanted to leave and he doubted that anything he could say could stop her. Glancing around him noticed that he could not see or hear his kids in the house.

"Where are the kids?"

"Next door with the neighbour."

Opie turned and walked towards the door.

"I had some ATF bitch here today, sticking her nose into our business and your association with the club."

"What did you tell her?"

"Nothing, I ain't no rat but you need to get out of the club, we need to get away from here."

"I ain't going anywhere Donna and if you can't get behind me and behind the club, then just go, leave because I have had enough of this bullshit."

Turning in disgust and this time heading straight for the door, Opie had his hand on the door when Donna called out to him.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to see my kids."

Slamming the door behind he headed towards their neighbours house across the street but as he got to the house he saw that the kids were playing happily in the back yard and he knew that the mood he was in was not a good one to see the kids. Although his relations with them had improved over the last few months they were still a little weary around him.

Opie looked longingly towards his kids for a moment and then changed his mind; he headed back to his house pulling his keys out of his pocket as he swung his leg over his bike. Gunning the engine he took off down the road.

* * *

A/N: Small chapter this time but the next one hopefully will be longer.


	15. Capybara

It had been the end of a long day for the club and various members were now gathered in the clubhouse, relaxing with beer , playing pool or generally just lounging around on the couches that were scattered all over the place. Juice was sitting at the bar, his laptop open as he searched for cheap bike parts. Clay wandered out of the chapel, listening to someone on the phone; he was smiling so whatever he was being told it was good news. Hanging up he shared that news with the members.

"We're clear of the ATF ladies and gents."

People celebrated around the room, clapping with unconcealed joy that the ATF were no longer gathering like vultures around them.

Juice nodded and smiled as he heard the news, carrying on with what he was doing on his laptop but eavesdropping on the conversation that Clay and Gemma were having about Jax's house. He reached to the side to grab his beer, glancing at the security monitor on the side of the bar next to him that showed the front door of the club. Outside he could armed men about to come through the door, leaping up he slammed the lid to his laptop down and at the same time calling out a warning to Clay.

"CLAY...COPS!"

The front door burst open, armed officers spilling through the door, aiming their weapons at those within, shouting at people to get down on the floor.

"EVERYONE…..DOWN….DOWN."

People were grabbed and shoved down on the ground and an armed officer reached out and slammed Juice down on to the floor. From his position on the floor he could see others as they were slammed down on the floor near him, Jax was shoved into a pillar in the room before he was taken down and Gemma being his mom reacted like a she lion protecting her cub and launched herself at the officer only to find herself being thrown on to the floor, next to Juice being followed by Clay who did not take kindly to anyone mishandling his wife.

Over the commotion of other law enforcement officers shouting at people to stay where they were or get down, Juice heard an ATF agent as he cuffed Bobby's hands behind his back telling him his rights.

"Robert Munson you are under arrest for the murder of Brennan Heffner."

"Who?"

"You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."

Anxiously Juice glanced around at the other club members, seeing their defeated and shocked expressions from their positions on the floor; as he thought to himself, 'how could they know? I'm just glad Opie ain't here'

As he gazes around he sees Stahl coming in through the front door, gloating at the members on the floor. She looked pleased with herself, like a cat that had finally got the cream. Bobby was pulled from the room and dragged outside as Clay shouted out that he would get onto Rosen to get him out and that he had to hang tight until he was free again.

xXx

In the chapel around the table, the temporarily defeated and stunned members of the MC gathered to discuss what had just gone down. There was much shouting amongst some of the members as they tried to work out what had happened, Juice sat silent and listened to the words of his brothers.

"We're a man short, where's Op?"

Clay asked, glancing at Opie's empty chair at the table. No one knew where Opie was, shrugging their shoulders.

"I called every number, there's no answer, I even tried Donna's phone too."

Juice told the rest at the table, troubled that he had been unable to reach his lover, he was worried sick, Opie should have answered his phone and Juice wanted nothing more than to go and find him but he knew he couldn't. It would have looked suspicious if he had gone charging off to find Opie after what had happened.

"Maybe he changed his goddamn home phone." Piney started to say.

Tig started to shout his mouth off, demanding to know where Opie was, shouting that it must have been Opie that sold Bobby out, Piney started to get angrier shouting at Tig that he knew nothing about what he was talking about. Juice just sat at the table upset at the route the conversation seemed to be taking and afraid for Opie's safety.

Several members leapt up as Tig and Jax got into each other's faces, Jax was not having Tig shouting that Opie had turned on the club when he had no proof. A sudden clanging noise was heard over their shouts as Piney slammed his oxygen bottle down hard on the redwood table, startling everyone as he glared at them and told them that the only reason that his son was not there with them at the table was because he did not know what was going on.

xXx

When Jax left, riding out of Teller Morrow intending to find Opie and bring him back to the table so everyone could find out why he had not been at the club when the law charged in and arrested Bobby, the other members either went home or to the respective dorm rooms.

Juice wandered back to his dorm, intending to get some sleep but he was so worried about Opie and what would be done to him if it was discovered that he had turned on the club and ratted. He hoped and prayed that Opie was not what more than a few of the members were thinking he was, he couldn't lose him, he loved him despite the problems that the two of them had been going through in the last few weeks.

A few hours later, after an unsuccessful attempt to get some much needed sleep, Juice got on to his laptop, searching on police databases for anything he could find that would tell him where Opie was. There was nothing on any law database that showed where Opie was, so he had not been arrested as far as he could tell.

For that Juice was relieved, he decided to check something else and contacted someone that they had at the San Joaquin finance company that many of the members used. As he talked to their contact, he started to become uneasy at the information that he was being told.

xXx

Clay and Tig were sitting over by the bar when Juice approached them looking upset. He placed a sheet of paper onto the table in front of Tig as he sat down looking at Clay as he spoke.

"Just spoke to our guy at the San Joaquin savings and loan; he checked Opie's finance's."

Clay looked over at their tech guy

"And" he questioned.

"Someone paid off a huge chunk of his debt…a federal wire transfer…..mortgage, credit cards, and car payments."

Juice could see the look of shock and disbelief on Clay and Tig's faces as what he told began to sink in. Tig looking at Clay, shock clear on the SaA's face as Clay took in himself what he had just heard.

"This stays between the three of us."

Clay told Juice gesturing to him and Tig.

"Yeah, of course."

Tig points to the other side of the room telling him to 'Go', as Juice gets up and leave, listening to Tig and Clay as he wandered sadly away. He could hear Tig telling Clay that Opie had turned on them and Clay arguing that it might not be the case but the ATF bitch Stahl might be making it seem like it was Opie who had fingered Bobby.

Juice was so worried that they were going to do something to Opie and he prayed that they would at least give Opie the chance to tell them what really happened and not decide that he was a rat and just kill him before he could defend himself against what Juice believed could only be the ATF lying, there was no way that the man he loved could do what the evidence pointed to.


	16. Capybara - Part2

Opie sat slumped at the table in the interrogation room that he had been placed in when he and his family had been brought to the justice facility that they were presently being held at. He was worried about Donna and his kids but he was also worried about what the club would do when they found out what had happened to him and his family.

He wasn't stupid he knew it looked bad for him right now, at least one neighbour had seen him and his family being taken away in the early hours of that morning and that he himself had not been cuffed which no doubt they would tell to whomever came looking to find out where he was.

The door opened and Stahl entered, carrying a file which she placed on the table in front of Opie, ignoring it and her he stared ahead. Stahl watched him from where she stood in the room, she was not getting too close, she had done that with another son, Otto Delaney and ended up getting her face shattered when he had grabbed her and smashed her face repeatedly into the table and there was no way she wanted a repeat of that, her face was still bruised from its last encounter with a table.

"It's not looking good for you Opie; you're looking at doing twenty five to life for murder. The murder of one Brennan Heffner, a port official in Lodi."

"Don't know who you're talking about bitch."

Stahl smirked, opening the folder and showing him the artist's sketches of him and Bobby. Pointing to the one that looked a bit like Opie.

"We have a witness who places you at the scene, they positively identified Munson but couldn't you but that does not matter because the club think you fingered Munson and that's why you and your family are here Opie."

"You're lying."

Stahl picked up another sheet of paper from the file and slid it across the table towards Opie.

"Well for all the trouble that bringing you here has caused, I felt it was only right that we reimbursed you for the aggravation of you and your family being taken out of your home in the early hours of the morning. I took the liberty of transferring a substantial amount of money into your account, clearing a large part of your debt. I'm sure the tech guy that the sons have will find this very easily when he checks your finances that is if he hasn't done so already."

Opie stared at the sheet of paper in front of him, noting that almost all the debt that he and Donna had been struggling with had been wiped out, looking at the figures on the sheet he knew what the club would think, that he had turned on them and sold them out.

"You crazy bitch what have you done?"

xXx

After Stahl had left him to contemplate what he was going to do, to get out of the mess that she had forced onto him, he knew that he was going to have a hard time convincing the club that he had not ratted and at the same time he was worried what Juice would think. He hoped that beyond all hope that Juice had not yet checked his finances and spotted the fake evidence that was now planted in his account with the San Joaquin finance company but he knew that Juice was too good at his job and that he loved the club.

He heard the door open and looking up he expected to see Stahl or one of her agents entering the room but instead it was his wife Donna, his beautiful wife who he'd rather was anywhere but here. Her being brought in with him put her and their kids at risk as well as him. Rising from his seat, he got no more than a few steps before she was in his arms, hugging him, obvious relief in her eyes at seeing him but there was still fear in them as well. Fear which he knew instinctively had been put there by Stahl and the ATF.

"Are you alright, the kids are they coping?" he asked her as they sat at the table.

"I'm fine, the kids are fine. Your mother is coming to pick them up."

"My mom, they would be better off in care."

"Don't say that Opie."

Opie sighed and glanced down, chastised at what his wife had said about him wishing their kids in care, they continued talking for another few minutes until the door opened and Donna was escorted out by another nameless federal officer who took Donna away and left Opie once again alone in the interrogation room, contemplating his fate and that of his family. Donna and the kids, his father and the club and especially Juice who he loved as much if not more as his Donna not in the same way as he did her but love Juice, he certainly did.

xXx

At the garage Juice was sitting and worrying while working away at his laptop at the picnic table outside the club, he had tried to work in his dorm room trying to find anything that would clear Opie's name but so far he had found nothing. He was concerned over what he had overheard Tig saying to Clay that Opie had betrayed them, in his heart he knew that the man he loved was no traitor but the logic of the evidence that he had found so far said otherwise.

A car pulled into the lot and an older robust looking woman got out of the vehicle and made her way over to the office where Gemma was working he assumed she was no more than a customer and gave little more thought as he returned to the job at hand on his laptop trying to find evidence to stop the club killing Opie.

He had only just glanced down at his keyboard when he heard the sound of a bike entering the lot, looking up once more he saw it was Jax. Jax slowed his bike down as it neared the office and backed it into its parking space, Gemma and the unknown woman coming out of the office towards him as he got off his bike.

He saw Jax greet his mother and then address the unknown woman, like he knew her. Juice was curious but he had more pressing matters to deal with than whoever it was who had framed Opie, he was determined to find something that would save Opie.

xXx

Opie with his arm around Donna's shoulders walked towards the front entrance of the federal building, two federal agents, Stahl and one other following them as they escorted them from the building. Stahl goading the pair of them as they approached the front door, trying to get him to play ball with her but Opie and Donna ignored her.

Stahl was still not willing to allow Opie and Donna to leave without trying once more to get what she needed from them.

"Donna what sort of woman are you that you will willingly put your children's lives at risk."

Donna turned and looked at the woman who dared to bring up the safety of her children especially as she had been the one to put them at risk in the first place.

"The sort of woman who will not fold on her family at the first sign of trouble."

She told Stahl as she reached out to her husband.

"Come on, let's go home."

Arm in arm she and Opie walked out of the federal building and made their way back to Charming.

xXx

Late that day, Opie entered the clubhouse to face the club and put his case to them that he was innocent of the evidence that they had of him turning against the club. Jax had gone to pick him up from home and they had chatted for a few moments before Jax drove with him to the club in his truck, entering the club first ahead of Jax he saw his Pops playing pool with Chibs and Juice sat in a chair nearby.

"How you doing son?"

Piney put the pool cue down and hugged his son, Chibs doing the same as they welcomed him home. Juice hung back for a moment and Opie had seen the sadness and uncertainty in his lover's eyes, as he entered the room. Eventually Juice hugged him as did everyone else in the room but he had felt the stiffness in Juice's body when he had held him.

As they prepared to enter the chapel, they all removed their phones and placed them in the old cigar box they used before entering the room, Opie was the first to sit at the redwood table as the other's filed in.

"Where's Tig?" Jax asked when he noticed the SaA missing.

"He'll be here in a minute." Clay replied.

Opie lit up a cigarette and glanced across the table at Juice who he noticed couldn't look him in the eye.

"Appreciate you coming in Ope, it says a lot."

Clay told him as he seated himself at the head of the table.

"It says he is not a rat."

Piney told Clay looking him straight in the eyes. The other members unable to look anyone in the eye, unsure as they were about whether Ope was a rat or not.

"We've got one member in jail and another who was in Wipro facility; you understand why we have to be like this and my worry."

Clay was not letting up, Opie may have come in but until he learned otherwise he would treat him as a rat. Juice glancing across the table at Opie, looking upset.

"I know how this looks."

Opie told his brothers at the table, looking at them all as he spoke.

"What Stahl's done, she set me up to look like a rat, and it's all a lie! She threatened me with my own club; I don't know who the hell the witness is but it sure as shit ain't me."

The table was silent as each member present considered what Opie had just told them.

"She tried to turn Donna against me with the old Wipro bullshit dream but she turned it down."

Jax and Juice both looked at Opie when he said that Donna had refused to walk away from the club both were surprised; they knew she was no fan of the club not like some of the old ladies were.

"She trusted me that if I came in here to make it right with you guys that everything would be alright."

As Opie continued talking, Tig entered the room apologising for not being at the table when they sat.

"So am I good with you Clay, with the club?"

Opie looked at Clay uncertain about wether Clay believed himor not.

"You're a good man Opie."

As the others filed out of the chapel, he noticed Clay and Tig remain behind in the room. His Pop's offering to buy him and Jax a drink as they all entered the bar, Juice giving him a friendly slap on the shoulder as he passed him, relief evident on his face.

He watched as Juice disappeared down the hallway towards his dorm room and waited until Jax had entered the chapel again to talk to Clay and Tig and his Pop's was occupied in another game of pool with Chibs before he followed Juice, the two of them had some making up to do.


	17. The Sleep of Babes

Opie opened his eyes and was about to stretch but then remembered that he had Juice snuggled up to his side and if he continued on his course of action then he would disturb the smaller man next to him. That was something he did not want do, he wanted just for the moment to remember the night that had just passed it had been more than a few days since he had managed to clear his name with the club. At first he had not been sure if Clay had believed him but he so relieved when Clay had.

When he had left the party the night that he had cleared his name, it had not been long before he had followed Juice to his dorm room and then spent a few hours making up with him but he knew that he would not be able to stay the night and he had gone home to Donna and his kids waking the next morning in bed with Donna, the kids taking up the bulk of the bed between the two of them.

Opie and Donna had ended up with what was left on the edges of the bed their fingertips ghosting one another across the bed. He glanced down at his lover as he continued to slumber, he loved watching Juice sleep, he looked so young and innocent in sleep and there was stillness in his body that never seemed to be there in the daytime when he was awake.

Hearing footsteps in the hallway as others in the club began to awaken and begin the day, he figured that although he did not want to move that he would have to. It would not do for anyone to find him here in Juice's bed with the man curled up next to him unlike the first morning following his release from federal release; Juice had woken up the next morning on the pool table wrapped around the sleeping body of a croweater.

xXx

The members were gathered in the Chapel discussing the present problems they were having with their gun running operation and what they were going to do if the murder charge against Bobby went to court. They only had a retainer with their lawyer Rosen for about another week and after that they were going to have to fork out money for a large legal bill, money which they presently did not have.

Juice sitting in his usual seat looked up at his prez as they discussed what was happening. He knew that the club was in trouble, he had seen the finances while Bobby was inside the job of treasurer had fallen temporarily on his shoulders.

"Every spare cent we have is tied up in the warehouse rebuild."

"I know…I talked to Alveraz, the Mayan's want guns and they want them right away."

Clay told those seated at the redwood table. Jax sitting at his side, shook his head at Clay's announcement.

" Ain't got nothing to sell, the Irish won't start shipping till next month."

Clay considered what Jax had said, he knew that they had no stock left but they did have guns, guns that were kept hidden within the clubhouse to protect the club in times of trouble such as when they had to go in to lockdown.

"We sell the security surplus that we have here at the club."

"I thought we dinnae sell that surplus."

Chibs asked Clay concerned that the club would be left with no defences.

"We don't" Jax told him.

"Selling these guns is a goodwill gestures, the Mayans turn around and place a big order for next month."

Clay was getting annoyed with the negative attitude that he was getting from everyone around the table, this motion had to go through.

"They're gonna pay us half the cash in advance so that should make everything alright."

Jax was still not convinced by Clay's words.

"That will leave us with nothing to protect the club though."

"I'm out of idea's here Jax, if we don't jump on this deal we lose it. I'm just trying to help Bobby."

"I get that Clay but the ATF are still camped out in Unser's office, do you really want to take that risk."

"We can do this smart you know, have two drop points, the money at one and the guns at another. That way the ATF cannot pick any of us up on gun running charges."

Further down the table at his place at the table, Opie watched his best friend and his stepfather argue about what was best for getting Bobby out of jail and getting the money needed to pay for Rosen's retainer and also their concern over the ATF.

"Why would the ATF still be watching us?"

"Don't know, maybe they're pissed that you didn't turn. You go with Tig and pick up the money and Jax and I will go to the meet with Alveraz and drop the guns off to him."

Juice looked up concerned when he heard Clay tell Opie to go with Tig, he was still concerned about Opie's safety. Although everyone thought that Clay was okay with Opie after it had been proved that he was not a rat, he was still worried. He knew he was being an idiot about it but he could not get rid of the feeling that all was not as well as people thought it was, he just could not get rid of the feeling that Clay had something planned other than trying to get Bobby out of the slammer.

He heard Piney say that he would go with Tig and Opie and he felt a bit better, at least nothing would happen to Opie while his dad was there, or at least he hoped nothing would. He felt something brush against his leg under the table and saw Opie looking across at him, he smiled shyly back at his lover, as they listened to Piney and Clay argue. The argument ended when Piney suddenly got up from the table, slamming the door loudly on his way out.

xXx

Later in the day Opie was in the apartment with Jax, they were removing the guns they had hidden in a fake compartment behind the wall. While Jax was standing on a chair, he handed the guns as he removed them from the compartment.

"You think this is a bad idea, don't you Jax?"

Jax passed another gun to him before he answered.

"Yeah, I do."

"Clay made the deal with the Mayan's to make sure that the war did not reach Charming."

"It's bigger than that man."

Opie looked at his oldest friend, he was not sure what to make of Jax's concerns in fact Jax was not the only one that seemed concerned, Juice had seemed a little off earlier about this deal going down as well. He shook his head as he thought about the two of them both Jax and Juice worried too much.

"Let's just get this done, okay then we can worry about everything else later."

Jax told him but Opie was not going to let him get off that easily.

"Hang on you thinks I'm walking into something, don't ya."

Before Jax could answer him, Juice appeared at the open doorway.

"Hey Ope, Donna's here for ya."

"Thanks."

Juice shrugged his shoulders as he walked back to the bar and his laptop, Opie not far behind him.

"Everything is going to be fine Juice."

"Of course it is Opie."

Before he could say anything else he spotted his wife Donna across the room talking to a couple of the other old ladies. Donna looked up before he had taken more than a few steps and moved towards him, smiling as Opie greeted her.

"Hey."

"Hey, I'm sorry coming down here to bother you.

"That's alright babe, what's up?"

"Your mom wants to take the kids to Funtown and dinner, I didn't want to say yes till I spoke to you."

"Mom's volunteering to spend time with the kids."

Opie was seriously concerned and shocked, his mom didn't like kids, so her wanting to spend time with her grandkids did shock him.

"Yeah she had a good time with them. You know you really should talk to her, I think she is only staying around as an excuse to talk to you."

"Yeah…. maybe."

Opie really did not want to spend time with his mom let alone talk to her, he had nothing in common with her but he wanted to keep Donna happy so he reluctantly agreed.

"Yeah, she can take the kids."

They continued talking for a few more minutes and Donna tells him that if the kids are with his mom then they have the house to themselves, he smiles at that thought it had been a long time since he and Donna had had some time alone together without the kids but as he was about to agree with her he remembered that that Jax was bringing his kid Able home tonight.

"Jax is bringing Able home from the hospital tonight, I got to go to the party to welcome him home. You don't have to go if you don't want to."

"No I want to go, it will be good for the kids. I'll tell Mary to bring the kids home before dinner. Love you."

xXx


	18. The Sleep of Babes - Part 2

Tig and Opie were on their way to the meet with the Mayans who would pass them the money for the guns, Opie was driving but he wanted to check in with Donna to make sure that all was fine.

"Lend us your phone will you, need to check in with Donna. I found mine in a pitcher of beer. Know anything about that."

Tig handed his phone, his face was neutral as he considered Opie's question.

"Here….maybe it was thirsty."

As Opie dialled a number that he knew by heart, he and Tig continued to talk, he questioned Tig about his kids he knew the man had two daughters but not what their names were and asked the SaA

"Got two daughter aint ya?"

"Yeah, Dawn and Fawn."

Opie looked at him weird, he never would have thought that Tig would call his girls Dawn and Fawn; they were not the short of names that he would have thought the hardened SaA would know.

"The wife chose the name, I get to see the girls a couple of times a year."

Opie snapped Tig's phone shut, handing the phone back to Tig.

"Gone to voicemail, thanks tho."

Opie pulls the truck to the side of the road as they arrive at the warehouse where the meet was taking place and Opie entered the warehouse first and therfore did not see the look of fear on Tig's face as he came in the door behind him.

The entire warehouse was filled with dolls and the last thing that the Tig ever wanted to be in a room with was dolls, they creeped him out. Opie turned back to him and saw the concern on his face.

"What's up?"

"Dolls man, I hate dolls. They creep me out."

Tig stared around wearily at all the dolls before he moved further into the room, Opie following behind him chuckling silently at the SaA's obvious discomfort over dolls.

"Well that's a story that needs to be told." He muttered to himself.

As they walked around a corner they came upon the Mexicans who were waiting for them and were about to do the deal with them when the door to the warehouse opened and a number of men charged into the room, shooting at the two sons and the Mexicans within.

Tig threw himself forward, diving for cover as bullets flew through the air, the impact of him hitting the floor and a load of boxes caused the contents to spill out. To his horror, dozens upon dozens of dolls fell from the split boxes onto him and the floor.

Opie fired towards the men shooting at them, taking down one and then he disappeared around the corner of the shelving unit as he tried to find a better place in which to shoot from and for cover of his own as well. Tig continued to wither on the floor in terror at the dolls that were surrounding him, he started to whimper as his fear began to overcome him and in his frightened state he did not see the Niner that took aim at him until the gunmen fell down dead at his feet, shot from behind by Opie.

"Here, let's get out of here."

Opie pulled him up and turned towards the door intending to take point as they made their way to freedom, Tig waited behind him, his gun aimed at Opie's head but he could take the shot. The man had just saved his life and although he believed he to be a rat still and Clay had told him to get rid of him before he could damage the club he just could not pull the trigger.

"You ready to move Tig?"

"Yeah let's get out of here."

xXx

The club members regrouped outside the clubhouse after the fiasco in Lodi, they had lost both the money and the guns to the Niner's when they had attacked both the meets. Opie was sitting on the picnic table worried about what had just gone down.

While they tried to come to terms with what had happened, Jax's phone rang and he moved away to answer it as he realised it was his mother, Opie wanted nothing more than to go and find Juice, he wanted to spend a few minutes with him while all the craziness around them died down but he knew that they probably would not get the chance. He got up disenchanted and headed to his truck if he could not spend time with his lover Juice then he would go home and spend time with wife Donna instead he decided.

xXx

The party at Jax's house to welcome baby Able home was already packed with people by the time Opie and his family got there, all that had to make an appearance now was Jax, Wendy and the baby. Opie wandered into the kitchen to grab a beer for him and another for Donna, Juice opening a beer and did not see him until he was at his side.

"Hey brother, how are you doing?"

Juice looked over at Opie smiling, pleased to see he was alright. He had heard what had happened at the warehouse and now that he could see that Opie was safe he felt better.

"What's taking you so long to get me that drink?"

Donna came up behind the two men as she entered the kitchen and saw the two of them talking by the table that held the drinks. She slipped her arm around Opie's waist, smiling at Juice as she did so, she had noticed the other man flinch in an almost guilty way after she had made her presence known in the kitchen, she had noticed them talking and thought as she had watched them that they seemed just a little too close to one another as they spoke.

Not that Donna was worried, if Juice had been a croweater than yes she would have been worried about that their closeness but as Juice was Opie's brother in the club she felt little worry in the closeness, after all Juice was a guy not some skanky whore that was trying to get her hands on her man.

"Here babe."

Opie handed her an opened bottle of beer and then grabbed another for himself as he guided her out of the kitchen, his eyes briefly making contact with Juice's over her shoulder. Juice leaned back against the table, biting his lower lip as he watched the two of them leave the kitchen.

It was not long after the Winston's left the kitchen that Jax turned up with the most recent of addition to the SAMCRO family, people gathered round welcoming the newest member to their dysfunctional family as they admired the baby in his father's arms, Jax grinning broadly as the tiny bundle that he held so lovingly in his arms.

Juice had just grabbed himself a second beer and was about to leave the kitchen when he spotted Tara tearing out of the nursery and heading out the door, Jax not far behind her. As he got closer to Juice, he saw that a hand print bruise marring Jax's face and was curious as Jax asked him to make sure that Tara got home safely, he handed him the beer he had in his hand and headed out the door after the doc.

"So what just went on?"

Ope asked Jax as he approached him, Jax leaned against the banister absolutely stunned at what had just happened.

"I have no idea brother."

He and Opie continued to talk for a few more minutes until Opie felt an arm slink around his waist; he knew who it was as he looked down at his wife.

"It's time to get going honey; the kids have had a long day."

"Sure babe, come on kids."

As the Winston family head outside to their vehicles, they don't notice Tig as he gets on his bike and rides off, Donna was strapping the kids into her car and Opie was leaning on the front car door watching her as she does so, he smiles as he watches her doing this simple thing to ensure the safety of their children on the drive home.

Donna approaches him and kisses him before she gets in the car, Opie closing the door behind her and then he heads over to his truck, Donna watches him and as he is about to get into the truck she calls out to him.

"Hey are you coming straight home?"

"Sure, why?"

"I want to come back and help Gemma clean up, once I get the kids to bed.

"Well why don't you stay and I'll take the kids home and put them to bed."

"You sure?"

"Yeah course I am."

"Thanks baby."

Donna gets out of the car and approaches Opie who hands her the keys to the truck as she hands him the keys to her car. Opie gets into the car saying goodbye to her as he drives home with the kids and she heads for the store to buy dishwasher powder.

xXx

A car screeched to a halt next to where the emergency vehicles were parked and those standing around saw a bear of a man leap from the driver's side and run towards the area that had been taped off by the police, they could hear him shouting as he ran.

"DONNA…DONNA"

He ducked under the tape as officers tried to stop him and they heard Chief Unser shout at them to let him through. The man stopped before the body of a woman who had been removed from a truck that had its back windows shot out, the spectators could from they were standing the blood that pooled upon the ground around her head and they knew that she had not stood a chance.

Opie gathered the already cold body of his beloved wife into his arms as he cried into her hair. He had only just put the kids to bed when he had got a phone call from Unser telling him that there had been an accident and his beautiful Donna was hurt but as he held her lifeless body in his arms, he could see that it had not been an accident that had taken his wife from him. As Opie continued to cry in the middle of main street holding his dead wife in his arms, others from the club arrived on their bikes.

Juice rode up with Tig and as the young man took in the scene before him, he felt Tig's hand on his shoulder as he stood behind him. He could see Opie crying and he wanted to go and comfort him but he knew it wasn't his place, Jax was next to Opie, standing with Chibs and he saw him reach down for Opie pulling him into a hug as he held him and then he and Chib's helped him away from the body of his wife.

He rubbed away a single tear that rolled down his cheek as he saw his lover's pain and heard Tig as the older man spoke to him; he could not make out the words he was saying but he overheard Chief Unser telling Clay that some asshole had made a terrible mistake and unless Donna had been living a double life, then this retribution had been meant for Opie. He thought for a moment back to the conversation that he had overheard between Tig and Clay after he had shown them the paperwork showing Opie's debt wiped out and for a moment, he wondered if Unser had meant either Clay or Tig was the asshole.

Gradually everyone left the scene as Donna's body was taken away, Opie was taken home by Jax as he prepared to tell his kids that their mother was dead but as soon as he got home, he knew that he could not wake them up to tell them, he would wait till morning.


	19. The Revalator

The sun was sparking, it was a beautiful day but in Opie's heart the day was dark and nothing would sparkle again for him as he watched his kids swing backwards and forwards sadly on the swings in the backyard, this morning when they had awoken and run into the kitchen for breakfast expecting to see him and their mother waiting for them, they had wondered where Donna was and he had had to tell his kids that their mother was gone, gone to live with the angels.

It had been one of the hardest things that Opie had ever had to do in his life, as he had held his children as they had cried for their dead mother, tears running down his own face he held onto Kenny and Ellie, the only connections that he had left with his beloved Donna.

As he sat and watched the kids he became aware of Jax as he joined him in the backyard where he kept an eye on his kids. Jax sat on one of the seats at the kiddies table as he considered what he was about to say.

"How they doing?" he asked Opie.

"Been crying all morning, Kenny keeps forgetting….."

"Anything you need?"

Opie looked down at his hands as he listened to his brother and oldest friend in the club give his condolences over what had happened to Donna.

"You want me to stick around?" He heard Jax say.

"No I'm ok." Opie paused of a moment before continuing. "She knew Jax, Donna knew that something bad was going to happen, that I would bring trouble down on this family."

"Ope she didn't know, you didn't cause this."

Opie glared angrily at Jax as he tried to reason with him.

"A gangbanger shot my wife and I had nothing to do with it?" he seethed credulously as he asked Jax.

He got up and stormed away from Jax, getting behind his son and pushing the swing that the little boy was aimlessly swinging on.

xXx

The meeting in the chapel was a subdued one as the members sadly wandered in, they were all still upset to some degree or another over what had happened to Donna and wondering how Opie was going to cope as a widower with two young kids.

Clay glances at Jax as he sits, noting how upset his stepson looked, he knew that Jax had gone to see Opie earlier that day.

"How's he doing?"

"I don't know." Jax shook his head sadly.

From his seat at the other end of the table, Piney looks up at Clay's question and demanded angrily.

"How do you think he is doing?"

"The funerals tomorrow." Jax told everyone at the table.

"Get people here, show support."

Clay looked over at Juice who was sitting quietly in his seat as others at the table spoke.

"Happy's in town, I'll start making calls…"

Piney was getting angrier where he was sitting, listening to his brothers as they made plans on Donna's funeral, all he wanted was to get the murdering bastard who had gunned down his daughter-in-law. Juice could feel the tension that was coming off the older man as he sat next to him and was not surprised when he was suddenly stormed out of his seat, slamming the door loudly behind him as he left the room in disgust.

xXx

During the morning everyone had gone about their business getting things done, it was about midway through the morning that they saw a car pull into the TM lot and Rosen got out. He waited by the car as the Son's approached him and he then told them why he was there.

Juice listened in horror as the lawyer told them that the prosecution had a witness that was going to nail Opie and that Opie was going to end up in jail despite the clubs best efforts. After Rosen left, the members entered the garage the two mechanics working left at Tig's insistence, as Juice pulled down one of the bay doors to give them a bit more privacy as they spoke.

Juice listened as the others discussed what to do about the witness, his eyes on Tig and Clay but mostly on Tig, he heard him say about getting rid of the witness.

"Kill him?"

Juice asked Tig, uncertainty in his voice."

"He's a rat, rats are killed."

At Tig's words he knew that he had had something to do with Donna's death and as the realisation hit him, he knew it was his fault, he had given the information to Clay and Tig about Opie's finances that made him look like a rat and because of that he had caused unmistakeable heartache for his lover and for two children to lose their mother.

As the guilt of what he had caused assailed Juice he continued to listen in silence to the others as they argued.

xXx

The heat was beating down as Juice kept watch while Clay and Tig spoke to Trammel, the cop that was in the pockets of the son's, he scanned the surrounding area as he partially listened to the conversation, he heard Trammel say to the two older bikers that they would need a case number to find out where the witness was. As Trammel drove away, unable to help the son's find the witness who had fingered Opie and Bobby, he heard Tig ask Clay where they were supposed to find that, listening in he heard Clay as he told Tig he knew exactly where to find it, they had to visit the top of the food chain.

xXx

It had not taken much to get into see Elliot Oswald at his fancy ranch, Clay had told the guy on the gate that they were here to fix the cars. The guy figured looking at them that they were the help despite the leathers they were wearing that clearly identified them as bikers, Juice thought to himself that the security was lax in this place and that the guy at the gate was an idiot. They had found Oswald with very trouble and it had not taken Clay and Tig long to persuade him that it was in his interests to help.

Juice waited to one side in Oswald's office with him while he acquired the information that they needed, as he waited he peered around the office of one of the richest guys in Charming. As his eyes gazed around the room he could see that the guy had some nice stuff and a pretty decent computer, it was one of the newer models that he had looked at a few weeks ago when he had gone to see about replacing the computers for the clubhouse but he had not brought any because they were too expensive and there was no way that Clay would allow him to spend that much money on new tech for the club.

It did not take Oswald long to persuade a buddy who was a judge to give him the information that the club needed and he was soon following Oswald back out to Clay and Tig.

"Case number."

Juice said as he handed the information to Clay who asked Elliot how he had persuaded a judge to give the information over, looking to Juice who confirmed that what Elliot had just told him was the truth.

"Good…very good."

Juice followed as they left Elliot and the three of them made their way back to their bikes talking on the way about how they were going to get to the witness. Juice had already put a call into Happy who had given him an alarming amount of information on safe houses and witnesses. Tig told Clay that he, Chibs and Happy would take care of the goddamn witness.

xXx

Tig, Happy and Chibs had already left when Jax got back to TM to deal with the witness, Juice watched as the VP and prez entered the chapel for a private discussion. He was sitting miserable at his laptop still when Jax had come storming out of the chapel and noticed him sitting there, Jax could see that he was upset and demanded to know what was wrong and he did not hesititate to tell Jax what he had learned about the witness.

When Juice had given the case number to Trammel and then got the address that was needed so that the guys could take out the witness he had also learned that the witness was a 17 year old girl, the information disturbed him. He didn't like that another innocent woman was about to be killed and the guilt that he had already been feeling about Donna began to assail him again but if she testified he knew he would lose Opie.

Jax whipped off his cut, handing it to Juice as he flew out the door to catch up with the guys before they did something that would bring down their downfall, one of the few morals that the club was based on, sons did not kill women. He heard Clay yelling his name as the door shut behind the fleeing VP.

xXx

The following morning the day was sunny as the sons gathered for Donna's funeral, Opie had arrived earlier along with his mother and his kids. While the kids followed behind the hearse in a car with their Granma, he and his father had ridden in the procession that had escorted the hearse carrying Donna to her final resting place.

Jax had not been at the clubhouse when the others had left for the cemetery and Juice was currently holding his cut that the VP had handed to him the night before when he had charged out. He saw Tara glance to the side and turned his head seeing Jax walking towards the grave where they were all currently listening to the reverend as the service was read.

Opie was sitting with his kids and family and Juice could see that although he looked strong, he was broken inside. His pain hit Juice hard and he knew he had a lot of making up to do to Opie when he decided what he wanted to do but for now Juice would stay away while Opie dealt with his grief. As much as he wanted to be with him, he felt that Opie would not want to be with him, after all he thought 'It's my fault that Donna is dead'.


	20. Ablification

The wind was rushing by Opie as he rode down the highway on the outskirts of Lodi; he had been on the road for the last few weeks having taken a leave of absence from Charming, his kids and the club. Following Donna's death he could not bear to be anywhere that reminded him of his loss and he had needed to get out of Charming before he had exploded and did something that would have got him twenty five to life in Stockton.

Soon he would be home in Charming and he knew that he would have to get on with the life that he had left, raising his kids as best he could alone but he really hoped that his mother would stick around and help him with them.

As he drove he thought back to the last time before he had left, that he had seen Juice, the meeting had not gone well and he felt so ashamed in himself at how he had treated Juice and the things he had said to him, the grief he had been dealing with following Donna's murder had been too much for him to handle and in the end he had taken it out on his lover.

He had gone to visit Juice at his home the night before he had left Charming to go on his little walk about, he realized now that maybe it had not been the best thing to do but at the time he had not been thinking straight.

Juice had been in his kitchen, Ope remembered making one of those health drinks that he liked when he had entered through the back door. His lover had turned at the sound of his backdoor opening and Ope had seen the look of relief and a sad smile on his face as he had entered.

FLASHBACK

Juice had slipped his arms around Opie's waist after he had entered the room, leaning into the bigger man as he hugged him, whispering in his ear that everything was going to be alright. At first Ope had leaned against the smaller man, just glad to be with him but as the minutes passed, the grief he had been feeling at Donna's death hit him again and he began to feel irrational anger not at himself, well a little at himself but a hell of a lot at the man he was currently holding.

"You're glad Donna is dead aren't you Juice."

He felt Juice stiffen in his arms at his words and Juice pulled back from him, looking up into his face.

"No Ope, I am not."

Shock at Opie's words had marred Juice's face but Ope had continued, his words becoming even nastier as he pushed the smaller man away from him.

"YES YOU ARE."

Ope had shouted at him and he'd pushed Juice backwards away from him, following him his had grabbing Juice around the throat forcing him to lean backwards over the kitchen table as he shoved his face into Juice's. He was totally enraged now as the grief and rage that he had largely been keeping at bay took over entirely.

"You are glad that my beloved Donna is dead, my wife because you think it would get you into my arms more. You make me sick, sick to think that I let someting as perverted as you to touch me."

"Ope please….You're not thinking straight, I am not pleased that Donna is dead. If I could I would swop places with her, if it would spare you the pain that you are going through now."

Juice implored of his lover as the man held him down and screamed at him, he tried to push Opie off of him but the older, bigger man was too strong and for a moment he nearly had a flashback to when the cop had held him down just before he had assaulted him in that motel room in Nevada.

"I wish you were the one dead."

Ope had snarled at him, at those words he had removed his hand from around Juices throat and let go of him and as he left Juice and stormed out of the house, his last view of his lover had been of the smaller man was when he had crumpled to the floor, wrapping his arms around his legs as he had cried to himself at the cruelty of Opie's words and actions.

END FLASHBACK

Now as he rode his bike back to the life he had left behind, he knew he had a lot of making up to do to Juice and just hoped that his Latino lover would let him. He also prayed that Juice had not found someone else in the time that he had been gone, several times he had gone to phone Juice to apologise profusely for what he had said to him and done but every time he had taken the cowards way out.

xXx

It had been a hard few weeks for the club, the warehouse was finally rebuilt and although still empty there had been a few ideas on how to fill it, the ATF were still breathing down their necks and it did not matter how careful they were, if the ATF decided to put a tail on any of them, they could lead them right back to the guns. It was driving the club mad, they had to find somewhere that they could assemble the guns once the Irish started shipping again but they could not risk the ATF catching them.

Several of the club members including Juice were at that moment at the warehouse testing the new hardware that Cameron Hayes and an associate had brought into the country with them. The guns were handling well and they were easy to use, they shot with ease and so far they had not found any that jammed or misfired.

Juice took aim again with the gun he had in his hands, aiming it at the target and pulling the trigger, it felt good to have it in his hands, just shooting a target for the hell of it. Ever since Opie had left a few weeks before he had been in a bit of a depression although no one else in the club was aware but several times he had caught Chibs looking at him strangely with concern in his eyes.

Emptying yet another clip at the paper targets, Juice turned back to where the rest of the hardware was laying and placed the now empty gun with the others and along with the others members walked back towards the still empty warehouse. Behind him he could hear Chibs and Tig taking pot shots at the prospect that was placing new targets up or had been until Tig thought he would use him as the new target.

Inside the warehouse Cameron Hayes, the guy who Juice had spent a few months before with his finger up his ass, blocking a bullet hole was waiting with his colleague as the sons approached him. Juice did not like the look of his companion, he had seen the sneer that the young man had given to the sons when he thought that no one was looking and he seemed arrogant and haughty as if he thought himself too good to be in the mere presence of the sons.

Jax and Clay were discussing with Hayes the shipments and what the price was but Hayes stopped them telling them that they were going to start doing things differently, at least where the guns were concerned. Both the prez and VP argued with him as they pointed out that they always assembled the guns themselves but it was pointed out to them that they had not had such intense ATF interest before as they had now and the new way was safer for everyone.

Leaving the Sons for a moment to discuss amongst them what they were going to do, Hayes and the young man he had just identified as his son moved over to where a van was parked while keeping an eye on the situation with the sons as it developed.

"Hayes is right, it does not matter how careful we are. No matter how far we go off the radar, whatever dummy corporation we use, if one of us gets followed, we could lead them straight back here."

Clay and Jax stared at each other and then Clay nodded at Jax and gave him the go ahead to negotiate with the Hayes's, the younger Hayes being cocky in trying to get the price down but Jax would not let him have the pony express service for lower than he thought they should be paying.

xXx

Opie rode into the lot of TM it had been a long time since he had ridden through the gates and it felt good to be home. He watched as a number of his brother's approached all of them greeting him happily even Juice despite the tension he felt in the smaller man.

Sitting down with his brothers at the table again he talked about what he had seen on his travels and the people he had met while they also discussed the business at hand. Across from him Juice still would not look him in the eye and Opie wanted nothing more than to be alone with him, to apologise to him for the awful things he had said but he knew that he had to wait until chapel was finished and even then until his brothers had finished welcoming him home.

Finally Clay called an end to the meeting and he left the room, noticing that Jax stayed behind in the chapel to talk to Clay, the rest of the brother's heading out to grab a drink from the prospect. A few headed outside and Juice he noticed headed down the hall towards the dorm rooms, several sheets of papers in his hands which he was reading as he walked. Making sure no one was watching he followed him and as Juice walked into the bathroom, Opie followed in closely behind him before he could close the door.

"God I've missed you."

Opie shut the door with his foot and wrapped his arms around Juice.


	21. Ablification Part 2

**WARNING: Male on Male sex but nothing too explicit!**

* * *

It was already getting late; the night had closed in and on the lot of TM, gathered sons, hangers on and sweet butts mingled, the music blazing out and the Barbie in full burn. Opie was sitting at the picnic table, nursing a drink or two his eyes downcast as his father berated him for not going home and being with his kids, Juice watching from a few feet away, concern clearly visible on his face.

Piney leaned forward as Opie appeared to be ignoring him, his father was getting fed up with his son's depression and he told him as much.

"You know I don't care how depressed you are, you need to pull your head out of your ass boy and go home and be a father to your kids. I'm sick and tired of picking up your shit for you boy."

The sound of a car pulling into the lot had the sons turning, hope filling them that Bobby was finally home having been released from federal holding a few hours before but they were disappointed to see a group of men get out. One had a suit on but the others were dressed casually but smartly in just shirts and trousers.

Clay and Tig approached the men, Clay informing them that the garage was closed but that did not deter the men and as they approached the prez and SaA, other sons surrounded them, Juice ended up on Tig's right hand side, Happy standing at his shoulder, Opie a few steps behind the other sons, as they watched the men in front of them cautiously but not showing the interlopers anything but defiance. Especially at their apparent leaders words that it was about time for the sons to stop selling guns to colour, his suggestion not going down well with any of those present especially Clay.

Tig stepped forward, his gun showing in his hand and all the others prepared themselves for a fight if it broke out but the men took the hint and moved back to their car getting in it and leaving the lot, Clay handed a card to Juice telling him he wanted to know everything.

"Got it."

xXx

Juice took the card that was handed to him and hurried into the clubhouse, working his way through the crowd within heading for his room. Opie following not far behind him again like he had done earlier that day.

"Will it take you long?"

Opie asked Juice as he set up his laptop, turning it on and setting up a program that would run checking various databases without needing him to be seated in front of his laptop. As he set it in motion he turned to the other man in the room.

"The program will run itself."

Opie smiled as he moved closer to Juice wanting to continue what he had started in the bathroom after chapel before he had ridden out in one of the vans with Jax, Chibs and Tig in another to find the man he had been told was responsible for his wife's death.

Juice leaned in closer as Opie hugged him, he still felt hurt by what Opie had said to him the night before he had left Charming but he understood that Opie had been hurting. Moving Juice backwards with care, Opie pushed him gently and cautiously backwards down onto the bed, he remembered the last time he had pushed Juice backwards and shame flooded him at what he had done.

Leaning over Juice and straddling the smaller man's hips he leant forward his arms either side of his lovers head as he kissed the man beneath him with as much tenderness as he could muster but a hungry need took over and he pushed his tongue hard against Juice's lips parting them as he demanded entrance to his mouth.

Juice groaned as feelings of contentment and lust overtook him and he kissed back as hungrily as Opie kissed him, he had missed feeling the other man's arms around him and his tongue within his mouth as they both fought for dominance.

Running his hands over the hard body that pressed against his, Juice pulled Opie's T-shirt up, his fingers twisting around Opie's nipples, pinching them painfully. Opie hissed and grabbed at his hands, pulling them up above the man's head pinning them to the bed as he took his lover.

xXx

Finally the car that the sons had been waiting for all evening arrived, pulling in there was a loud cheer as Bobby stepped out of the cars, his SAMCRO brothers surging forward to welcome him home. Juice stepped forward with his cut, holding it out for him as Bobby slipped his arms into it. Juice then stepped back a little to avoid being crushed as the larger members of the charter gathered around Bobby slapping the man on the back and shoulders enthusiastically and pulling him into the crowd as they welcomed him home in true son's fashion, loud and rambunctious.

As the evening started to die down and Opie went home to finally be with his kids after his walkabout, Juice sat at the bar watching his brothers enjoy the entertainment and Bobby enjoy his lunch between a sweet butts legs.

Everything felt as if it was going to be better and that the sons were perhaps in for a quiet time but as Juice had learned in the past that the life of the club was never quiet and stationary like the civilians who lived their quiet boring lives outside the club but Juice knew that whatever society threw at them, they would face it together as a family.


	22. Small Tears

The following morning the club members are slow to rise, most were scattered across the main room of the clubhouse on couches, the floor, Bobby was between two sweet butts on the pool table and Juice was also sandwiched between sweet butts this time wrapped around the stripper pole seeing as the pool table was already occupied.

The prospect was up before everyone else clearing up the debris from the party the night before and making copious amounts of coffee in a vain attempt to awaken the hung over and dead like club members.

Gradually everyone was up, mugs of coffee handed to them as they staggered to their dorm rooms for showers and a change of clothes. A phone rang on the bar and Half Sack picked it up, he flipped it open and listened to the voice on the other end.

"Guys, we really got to get to the hospital, like now."

xXx

Hospital workers jumped to one side as a gurney with a very ill looking Bobby lying on it and Chibs sitting at his side shouting at people to make way, flew past them as Juice and the prospect propelled it at running speed down the hallway towards the waiting room where Clay and Tig were waiting for them. Opie was following at a more leisurely pace enjoying the view of Juice's butt as he pushed the overloaded gurney ahead of him.

The gurney swerved to a halt outside the open doors of the waiting room and they all stared at Tig and Clay within. Tig grinning at the state of Bobby who was dying on the gurney as quietly as he could.

"How's the homecoming queen?"

Juice grinned as he answered the SaA.

"He's a little green."

Juice was leaning on Bobby who pushed his head up high enough to ask a question, his cigarette falling out of his mouth as he asked.

"How's Gemma?"

"A lot better than you." Clay told him.

The guys sniggered at the state of their ill brother, jolting him and making him feel more ill than he already was. They settled down gradually waiting for news about Gemma.

xXx

After the guys left the hospital to go and deal with business, Tig and Opie taking off to deal with some gun business while the rest of the guys went to visit Otto's old lady Luanne who ran a porn studio called Caracara.

As they wandered in they noticed that there were still ATF agents wandering about taking away boxes of items that the ATF had confiscated when they had closed the studio down, Luanne was hugging two of her girls as she handed them a check for half their retainers and warned them to stay away from another porn producer who had been threatening Luanne and trying to close her down for some time.

The guys gathered round as Jax and Luanne discussed business and Juice laughed out loud when he heard that the other porn producer who was threatening Luanne was called Georgie.

"Georgie….His name is Georgie?"

Luanne glared at him and Juice had the good grace to look shamed at interrupting her and Jax, glancing away from her as he withered under her intense stare. Jax and Luanne continued discussing what was happening and what was going to be done, after a while Jax turned and looked at his guys, giving a smile.

"Come on guys; let's go pay Georgie a visit."

xXx

Juice was the first of the sons through the door at Georgie's studio and he started to smile with delight and a chuckle as he spotted a larger than life sized poster on the wall opposite. It was of one of his favourite films, he told the guys as they followed him into the reception area. Behind him he could hear Chibs muttering.

"I laughed, I cried, I came."

They wander through an open doorway as one of Georgie's goons spotted them and demanded to know what they wanted, assuming they were the hired help here for auditions.

"We're here to see Georgie."

"He's not here."

Georgie spotted them from his office and came out telling them they had to go round the back for the auditions, mistakenly assuming just as his goon had done, that they were potential porn actors, he was positively salivating and flirting with Jax as he tried to persuade him that he had the Brad Pitt look going just right but Jax having none of it and warned Georgie and his goons off Luanne.

"Don't make us have to come back and tell you again."

The guys turned to walk out, Bobby stopping for a moment, the goon got into Bobby's face wanting to know what his problem was. Juice went back to back Bobby up as all the guys did but they were not needed and afterwards they all wandered out the door laughing at how Bobby dealt with the guy.

xXx

Juice rode back to the clubhouse with Bobby he really needed to get back to finding out everything that he could about the new cigar king in Charming. He checked his laptop and was pleased to see that the program he had set up the night before was almost finished spewing up sheets and sheets of information on the guy as Juice printed off all the information he had uncovered.

He sighed, early this morning as the party had been coming to a close it had seemed like everything was going to go their way for a while and he had thought it would be nice for it to just be quiet for a while, he had even thought that perhaps he and Ope could have some more time together. He smiled as he remembered the night before when he and Opie had made up.

It had felt good to be with him again, to be in his arms and even though they had been in danger of being discovered should any of the many people in and around of the TM lot had come to look for Juice for anything, it had somehow felt right and the danger of discovery had made the sex even better.

xXx

When Opie had got stuck doing club business with Tig, he had almost groaned, he had wanted to spend some extra time with Juice today but he knew that he had to start getting back in the club more and if he and Juice spent too much time together, he knew that the others would soon start asking questions. Questions which he really did not want to give answers to, he loved Juice but not enough for their relationship to be known to people especially not to his brothers in the club.

"You are doing okay, family and stuff?"

Opie looked up at the older man who like him was assembling a gun, Hayes and a few of his guys had left the two men alone in the kitchen while they took duffels filled with completed guns out to the waiting vehicles.

"I guess."

"I lost an old lady once." Tig told him, "I dumped an FXR on the I-5 and the poor bitch slide into oncoming traffic."

"Shit, I didn't know. Your kid's mum?"

"I wish it was that gash, no it was before I got patched. She was pregnant and I kinda loved that bitch."

Opie carried on putting bits of the gun he was assembling together as he listened to the older man.

"I keep dreaming, I'm back in Chino." He told Tig, "Real violent shit, you know and then I wake up, relieved that I am home and then it takes me a minute to realise that I am alone in bed, no one to share it with me."

"You're not alone Ope."

"Thanks man, appreciated."

xXx

Later that day the guys found themselves back at Georgie's studio, it seemed that the good man needed more persuasion about leaving Luanne and her girls alone.

"GOERGIE…..GEORGIE…..GEORGIE."

They called out as they entered the studio, disturbing filming that was taking place, all of them were carrying baseball bats, and as the goon flew at Jax, he and Juice went at him with their bats. A studio hand grabbed Opie from behind trying to disarm the big man but Opie shook him off and proceeded to render him unconscious with his bat.

On the other side of the room Juice grabbed one of the cameras and flung it down hard on the ground. Opie caught sight of Georgie charging towards his Juice but before he could move more than step to intervene and protect his lover, Jax beat him to the enraged man throwing him down on to the ground before he could lay a hand on the mohawked biker. Opie breathed a sigh of relief that Jax had been able to stop the creep from grabbing and possibly hurting his Juice.

xXx

Later during Chapel the members present discussed the matter of the Luanne and her porn business, Jax wanted the club to back the woman, to start looking at legitimate means to fill the warehouse they had built, it was one way he told Clay who was against the whole idea that it was one way to get the ATF off their back once and for all.

Even Juice piped up during the heated discussion stating that he could upgrade Luanne's internet business, pointing out to everyone at the table that there was room to put servers in the warehouse space, he even pointed out to them that, that was where the real money lay in today's porn business.

Clay still did not like the idea of going into porn but he listened to the guys at the table, Chibs pointing out that everybody liked pussy and then Opie seconded it with Juice putting his hand up to third it and therefore Clay had no choice but to put it to a vote especially when Tig also pointed out what a fan of pussy he was.

"All in favour, like I gotta ask."

"PUSSY"

The members all shouted, raising their hands apart from Clay still clearly not on the band wagon with the rest of his charter about porn. Banging down the gravel to signify the vote was in and decided upon.

"Looks like we're in the movie business."

xXx

Opie rode behind the van carrying the guns to the meet with the Niner's. He was starting to feel depressed about Donna again and knew that he would have to do something about it. He did not want to take his frustration out on his kids or on Juice again even though he had forgiven him for the last time he did not think he would do it again if did it again.

Pulling up to where they were meeting Laroy and his crew, Opie and the guys took watch while Clay and Laroy spoke. All of the sudden bullets started whizzing past their heads as the Mayans showed up angry about what they thought the Niner's had done to their guy that Opie had killed for killing his wife.

Bobby went down, hit in the shoulder and was dragged behind the dumpster, Half Sack checking him out and Opie heard him shout it was bad, they needed to get Bobby out of there. Taking a decision that he knew would be looked upon as suicidal by the rest of the club, Opie stood up and in what looked like terminator mode, strode towards the truck that contained the Mayans as they sped away with Laroy's guns.

"OPIE GET DOWN"

He heard his brothers shouting at him as bullets narrowly missed him but he did not get down and miraculously no bullet hit him.


	23. Fix

It had been three weeks since the night of the gun meet that had ended up with Bobby being shot and Opie's terminator move, three weeks of Juice giving Opie grief over it. He thought that Donna could get feisty when she was mad but God she had nothing on Juice, Opie found out after his lover had heard from Chibs what had happened.

Juice all but ripped Opie a new one when he had found out and even now three weeks later was making life hell for him. Not so much on what he was doing but more in the case of what he was not doing; Opie was not sure what scared him the most.

Despite Juice's anger though and him being mad as anything at what he called Opie's selfishness, they had found that it made the sex between them even more intense and the few times they had been able to sneak away from the others and get some time to themselves without any of the other sons knowing had been some of the most intense bouts of sex that Ope had ever experienced.

Things on the club front had been quieter though since that night and it was now early morning, Opie was at the garage working but Juice was up at the now newly opened Caracara, sitting with Chibs on a couch as they watched a naughty boss/dominant secretary porno being filmed.

Both men watched with rapturous interest as one of Luanne's girls, a slender blonde by the name of Lyla spanked the bare arse of her boss with his loafer, the man was enjoying it as was a few of the people watching. Luanne was directing from her usual chair and they heard her tell Lyla.

"Big finish Lyla, make it good."

Lyla who was dressed in nothing more than her underwear, her hair tied up picked up a bottle of what looked like whisky to Juice from the table, took a large swig of it swallowing the last of the liquid in the bottle and then with a mighty swing forced the neck of the bottle up the male actors arse.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

A high pitched almost feminine scream erupted from the male actor bent over the desk as he was pierced with the bottle and both Chibs and Juice cringed at his obvious pain, crossing their legs in sympathy but it did not stop them from both jumping to their feet and showing their appreciation by a loud clapping of their hands and shouting 'bravo'.

Although it did look painful something stirred within Juice and he felt himself get a little hard at the sight before him. Luckily for Juice though, he was wearing loose combats that did not show his excitement to the others in the spacious warehouse.

Leaving Chibs to talk to Bobby who had just turned up at the warehouse, Juice headed for the bathroom, he needed to get rid of the hard on he had in his pants if he wanted to be able to ride his bike comfortably. Beating it out in the stall, he was relieved when it did not take long to get rid of it even though the thought of Opie popped into his mind and he very nearly ended up with an even bigger problem.

Cleaning himself with toilet paper, he zipped his pants back up and headed out of the stall to wash his hands, as he finished up, the door opened and the actor that had caused his hard on walked into the room, not taking any notice of him thinking that he was heading for a stall Juice carried on and as he reached for a paper towel and then turned around to leave, the actor pushed up against him, stopping him.

"I saw you watching me out there sugar and I noticed you got excited."

The actor glanced down to Juice's pants, pouting a little when he noticed that Juice was no longer hard.

"I….I…I think you got the wrong idea mate, I don't swing that way."

The actor laughed, his face creasing up at Juice's words and he rubbed himself up against the biker again.

"Not what I heard sugar and….Ummmmm…..I've seen you at the club in Lodi before. So it's no good you telling me you don't bat for your own side because you and I both know that's not true, now don't we, sugar."

He leant forward pressing his body even more against Juice, his tongue snaking forward he tried to kiss Juice who pushed him away, shaking his head. The actor smiled predatorily at him as he was forced to step back away from the annoyed biker.

"Don't you worry sugar, I can wait."

Blowing a kiss at Juice, the actor left the bathroom and a slightly shaken Juice, he had expected one of the stars here to press up against him sure but one of the female stars not a male one, Christ if Opie ever found out Juice hated to think what would happen and that was one explosion that he never wanted to see.

xXx

Opie was out on a repo job with Half Sack letting the prospect do most of the work as he leant back against the tow truck, looking over the other side of the mill he watched a scrawny looking guy partly hidden behind one of the gates, with another and it did not take him long to figure what was going down.

"Jesus Christ."

"What?"

"Shitheads dealing. Looks like one of Darby's guys"

Opie moved back to the tow truck, grabbing both his and Half sacks cuts, throwing Half Sack's his as he grabbed a hammer out of the truck. Stalking menacingly over to the dealer, with their makeshift weapons on show, the dealer was unconcerned by their presence and would not leave when he was asked to, nodding behind him to a pair of huge guys who walked towards them.

Deciding it better to have backup the two men retreated.

xXx

Back at the garage the sons gathered in one of the bays as Juice placed the information that he had got on Zoebelle, he placed everything on the workbench. Clay staring at everything in front t of him.

"What have you got?"

"Zoebelle is a goddam saint; he owns five cigar shops, deacon at his church, widower, and one kid."

Jax passed another sheet of paper over showing Clay what was on it about another MC that used to run guns where one of the guy's shops had opened, within six months the entire crew went away on aggravated assault charges.

More discussion took place until Gemma made an appearance from the side office, telling Jax that one of the porn girls was waiting for him. The guys laughed but Opie noticed that Juice looked a little guilty about something to do with the porn studio, perhaps he thought one of the girls had pushed up on Juice, he grinned as he thought about how he would rib Juice about that later on when they had some alone time together.

xXx

The guys were back at the lumber yard, hiding behind one of the large trucks that was filled with the trunks of trees that had been cut down and was waiting to be turned into something else, they watched as Juice who had pulled the short end of the straw walk towards the dealer. He was wearing a check lumberjack style shirt over his t shirt and his head tats were hidden by a black baseball cap.

"You need something?"

"Have you got…?"

"Hey relax."

The dealer told Juice who looked sufficiently spooked enough to be a nervous driver, worried about his foreman catching him.

"Relax."

"My foreman sees me….I'm screwed man."

Looking back towards the truck where he knew his brothers were waiting behind, Juice pointed to the truck and the guy walked with him signalling to his bodyguards that everything was fine, as Juice nervously asked him that it was not the Mexican shit and such. As the rounded the back of the truck, Tig hit the dealer with a right cross.

The downed dealer flew backwards, Juice catching him in his arms as Opie lunged forward and ripped the guy away from him. Chibs grabbed his arm as Opie held onto his other, his hand over the guy's mouth so he could not call out for his goons as the sons dealt with him, finding out from where Darby was cooking his meth, Juice keeping watch making sure that no one disturb them as they got all the information they needed.

xXx

It was late at night as various club members enjoyed the wrap party at Caracara, Opie was taking a moment or two before he went to find Juice who had disappeared somewhere in the studio when they had first arrived. Jax handed him a beer asking what he thought he was doing, taking the risks that he had been taking in the last few weeks.

"Haven't got a death wish Jax, if that's what you think. Just getting more into club business, no longer half in and half out."

Jax was not convinced with him and took a mouthful of his beer as Opie glanced over to the open door; he spotted Ima making a beeline for Jax's woman as she came in through the door.

"Shit."

Jax looked up and saw the potential trouble that was brewing and went to put an end to it before anything could erupt, leaving Opie to go and do whatever he wanted to do and that was find Juice and spend some quality time with him.

Opie grinned evilly, as he thought what they could get up to in a porn studio with all the toys that Luanne had lying around. Perhaps he thought I'll tie Juice down until he begs for it, as he searched for his lover somewhere amongst the crowded studio finally catching sight of him he made his towards him, as he did so he spotted one of the male actors talking to Juice in what looked like to him to be a much too friendly manner.


	24. Eureka

Opie yawned and stretched his arms out, working the kinks out of his joints, amused how normally he woke before his lover, most mornings but not this morning. Juice was already in the kitchen when Opie had decided to open his eyes this morning making coffee at the stove. Just like any good old lady Opie thought with a smirk, he moved silently for a large man and it was not until his arms snaked around Juice's waist that his lover became aware of him.

Juice had been little jumpy the night of the wrap party when Opie had finally joined him, he had noticed one of the porn stars pushing up against him and he suspected that he was the reason for Juice's jumpiness. He trusted Juice but he did not trust the skank who had been pushing up on his man.

"You're going to be late for the run."

"I've got a few minutes, don't you worry about that."

Juice wasn't worried he was feeling a little jealous, Opie and the rest of the charter were going off on a charity blood run for the Eureka hospital for kids, to cover running the guns up the coast and Juice meanwhile was stuck in Charming.

He had to keep an eye on the porn business for Jax and he was not feeling particularly happy about it especially not with the male porn star that kept pushing up on him every chance he got. Passing Opie a mug of freshly made coffee, he grabbed a mug for himself before sitting down at the table.

"How long will do you think you will be away?"

"I don't know, a day maybe two. Make the delivery and stay up there for the night before making our way home, should be back late tomorrow providing nothing goes wrong."

xXx

Juice was sat at one of the servers, sorting out a glitch that had developed in the main hard drive of the computer normally it was something that took him no time at all to fix but he kept being disturbed by Luanne or someone else in the studio.

So far though, the male porn star who had been pestering him for the last week had not shown up today and he hoped that he never showed up at all while he was there. Luanne however was pissed, the guy was supposed to be filming today and the delay was causing the porn queen to pull her hair out.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU QUIT! YOU CAN'T QUIT, YOU'RE MEAN'T TO BE IN FILMING TODAY."

Luanne's infuriated scream echoed through the studio as the missing star phoned in to tell her that he was quitting. Juice could not help smiling but his smile did not last for long as Luanne stormed out of her office and made a beeline straight towards where he was working.

"JUICE."

Juice cringed as she came storming towards him and others in the vicinity made themselves scarce. Luanne looked wild and pissed at whatever the creep had said to her on the phone and he had a really bad feeling what that was.

"You got to help me get him in here, I don't care how you do it just get him here, there is only one scene left to film or else the club will lose money."

xXx

It was late at night and the run had not gone as Clay had planned, first off Bobby's knackered old fat boy of a bike had backfired and run Tig off the rode causing an injury serious enough to warrant the SaA being carted off to hospital and then while the others had continued the run Bobby, Happy and the prospect had accompanied Tig to the local hospital then Tig had been hauled off by bounty hunters.

Opie had stayed with Clay when Jax, Chibs, Happy and the prospect had hopped on the back of the Teller Morrow flat bed and gone and rescued Tig from the motel room where the bounty hunters had stopped briefly.

Now with Tig rescued and the guns delivered those who had been on the run were relaxing, enjoying beers and the attentions of sweet butts of the charter they were staying with for the night before heading back to Charming the next morning.

Opie had tried to call Juice earlier in the day while he had waited with Clay for the others to come back but Juice's phone had gone to voicemail which he had thought was odd. It was not normal for Juice to ignore his call especially his club phone which had been what Opie had called him on unless he had been doing something that he was unable to get away from at that moment.

He was still worried about Juice and he did not like that his lover had ignored him, still when they got home tomorrow he vowed he would find out why Juice had not answered his phone. That is if he was not able to get ahold of him tonight, flipping out his phone he dialled Juice's number again as he listened to his brothers making merry.

xXx

Juice had scrubbed his skin raw trying to feel clean after he had done everything in his power today to get that blasted porn prick to the studio to film the last scene of the film he was the star of. He had never felt this dirty in his life not even when the cop had assaulted him a few months before, then he had not had a choice over what had gone down, he had been unconscious when the guy had started fucking him.

Luanne had told him he had to get the guy there and the prick had been very adamant in that he was not going into the studio unless Juice did what he wanted and he had wanted was sex with Juice.

Finally he could scrub no more and he got out of the shower and had started to towel himself down as his phone began to ring. Grabbing it from the countertop in the room he flipped it open and saw it was Opie.

"Hey Ope! How was the run?"

He listened as Ope told him about the trouble of the day and due to the delay that had been caused they would not be getting back to Charming for at least another day. Opie asked him if he was alright, he sounded a bit down to him and Juice played it down saying he was missing him. They continued to talk for a few minutes until Opie was called to re-join the party.


	25. Smite

It was the start of the working day at Teller-Morrow; Opie had been there from first light, working out his anger on the machine he was fixing. Juice was working on some club business today at his laptop inside the club house but he didn't care what the cheating little shit did any more, he and Juice were seriously looking at breaking up as far as he was concerned.

He had been mad to think that he and Juice had any chance of a life together, it might have worked he thought had Juice not cheated on him with one of the male porn stars at Caracara. He had overheard the actor at Caracara the day before bragging to another about how good a lay Juice was.

The sound of a vehicle in trouble as it drove into the garage grabbed his attention and he left the machine he had been working on. A white hybrid car with its tyre missing rolled to a stop just in front of the garage. A petite slender blonde stepped out of the driver's side and approached Opie who was looking at the state of the wheel.

"I think it's flat."

"It went out on the highway."

"You drove here on that all the way from the highway."

"It's bad innit?"

Opie looked down at the front wheel more, his arms crossed in front of him as he studied the damage.

"The tyre's gone and the rim is off, it's gonna need some work."

"Will it take long?"

"Probably a few hours…You're one of Luanne's girls?"

"Lyla."

"Opie."

"Yeah I know."

They continued talking for a few more minutes, Opie was enjoying her company it had been a while he thought that he had enjoyed a woman's company. As they talked he observed other things about her, she had a nice shape to her, a little less curvy than he would have liked a bit too much on the lean side for him but she nice.

Opie got one of the mechanics to give Lyla and her kid a lift to the places she needed to be and he walked her over to her car, getting in to move it to one of the bays. As he switched the engine on, he glanced down at the floor and the saw the remains of some blow on her car floor.

"Shit!"

xXx

Juice came out of the back room with a crate of beer in his hands to find Jax sitting at the bar waiting for him. Things had been tense since the guy's had come back from the blood run and he had noticed the tenseness in Opie whenever he had mentioned Jax, he was not the brightest button in the box or so the guys thought and they obviously thought that he did not notice the tension between them all but he had, he was not as stupid as they all thought.

"Hey Jax what's up?"

He hauled the crate of beer up onto the bar as he waited for Jax to start talking, he knew that Jax had been to see Lowen, Otto one of their members who was in prison had been attacked and Lowen had contacted the club to let them know of his condition.

"How's Otto doing?"

"Missing an eye but stable."

"Oh shit does this mean retaliation."

Jax shook his head, he wanted retaliation but at the same time he did not want retaliation, they did not have enough information about the kind of man they were dealing with. They all knew that it was Zoebelle behind the attack but it was proving it.

"Retaliation now is a bad idea; we play right into their hands if we do."

"Zoebelle is squeaky clean Jax, not even a parking ticket. We are gonna have to do some street level recon to find anything."

"Exactly."

xXx

Clay along with Tig and Opie had just walked out of the barber's shop just as a trio of Zobelle's men with Weston in the lead headed their way across the street.

"Oh this should be interesting."

Clay muttered as Opie surged across the street to meet them, Opie had been angry all day and both the older men with him had felt the anger that had been pouring off the younger man in waves and as they watched the approaching storm they were looking forward to seeing Opie do some damage.

"You need to get your asses out of Charming."

Opie snarled at the despicable Weston as he stood in their path. He had no intention of allowing any of the guys in front of him get to his prez and the anger that he had felt at what he saw as Juice's betrayal stung as well and he just really wanted to hit something. As Juice was not present or the porn prick Weston was as far as he was concerned the best replacement he could get right now.

As he was about to swing back his fist a Harley flew stop in front of the group of men, Jax jumping off his bike tried to stop what was about to take place.

"A street brawl does not fix this Ope, if anything it will make it worse."

Weston sprang forward shoving Jax's Harley over, Jax reacted and he threw the neo Nazis against the nearest car. The AB guys rushed forward intending to help Weston but before they move more than a few steps in his direction, they were both taken down by Tig and Opie as they joined in the brawl in the middle of main street. Concerned spectators watched from the sidewalk amongst them Gemma and Clay who was more than happy to watch his brothers fight. In the distance sirens could be heard as Charming PD made its way to the disturbance.

xXx

The guys were all gathered in the Chapel, the four brawlers had finally been released from Charming PD but only because the chief could not afford to feed them. The main discussion on the table was retaliation against Zoebelle and the Aryan Brotherhood, the club wanted blood but Jax was still unsure about the nature of the retaliation.

He knew that Clay was right, they had to retaliate or the rest of the MC's and gangs in the area would see them as weak and the sons could not be seen as weak but Jax also knew they had to be smart about it as well. They needed more Intel before they rushed into anything foolhardy and he was not sure if he was going to be able to stop it.

After the meeting, many of the sons left and disappeared through the main door and were out the front of the clubhouse when a taxi drew up, Lyla got out. The garage had phoned her earlier to let her know that her car was fixed and she could pick it up anytime she wanted.

Opie approached her as she was about to get into the car and he could see Juice watching him from where he was standing, talking to his Pop. Deliberately making sure that Juice could see what he was doing, he flirted with Lyla chatting to her as though he was interested in seeing another woman since the death of his wife, his precious Donna.

He saw Juice look away as Lyla handed him her number, Opie smiled at her, making her blush under his scrutiny and she thanked him as she got into her car and drove off. Glancing over to where he pop's and lover were he noticed that Juice was not looking at him and he wandered over to where Tig was sitting on his bike, he leaned against another bike and the two of them talked about the blonde bimbo who had just left the lot.

KAAAAAAABOOM!

All of a sudden a loud explosion filled the air as the minivan that Chibs had got into to move into the garage exploded, the force of the blast sending the fleeing Scotsman flying through the air. He landed hard, the back of his head slamming down hard on the concrete as his unconscious body hit the ground.

"OH SHIT CHIBS."

Everyone on the lot ran over to where the Scotsman had landed, a pool of blood could be seen pooling under his head. Jax calling for Tara who pushed everyone back, she started to loosen his clothes as someone else called 911.


	26. Falx Ceribri

The lot was crawling with members of the emergency services that had responded to the explosion that had destroyed a minivan on the TM lot earlier that evening, almost killing one of the members as he had been about to move it into the garage itself.

Members were milling about, some in confusion and others in shock at what had gone down. Chief Unser was leaning against Hale's jeep when he spotted Clay across the lot signalling to him that they needed to talk, pushing off the jeep he made his way over and into the clubhouse. Jax who had been standing with Opie wandered over to talk to the deputy while Opie disappeared to go and find Juice.

He had spotted him disappearing into the garage and he had also noted how upset Juice had looked, the man had been close to tears but then he knew that the Puerto Rican was really close to Chibs and was more than probably upset about what had happened to the man.

Wandering through the darkened garage, he did not see Juice at first until he moved to the bay at the back of the garage where he had been working that morning. Spotting his lover crouched down on the floor near the back wall he moved over to sit beside him, Juice was sat with knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them and appeared to be shaking.

"Hey Juice, it's gonna be alright."

He squatted down next to Juice and pulled him into his arms, rubbing his hand on his back in a circular motion, soothing the shaking man as he helped him deal with the shock of seeing a brother and close friend flying through the air.

Juice continued to shake as he snuggled into Opie's arms; it felt good to be in his arms after the hell of the last few days. It had been fine when Opie had come back from the run and they had had some fun together but then he had changed yesterday becoming someone totally different, unfeeling towards him and he did not know why, he had seen him tonight flirting with Lyla who he knew worked at the porn studio and he had felt so jealous when he had seen them flirting.

Snuggling deeper into Opie's arms as his shaking persisted he tried to get rid of the feeling that he was losing Opie, he needed him, he couldn't lose him but he could not get of the feeling that they were not going to grow old together.

The garage door banging open was the only warning that the two men got before Jax strode in, springing apart before the VP spotted them in the inappropriate position.

xXx

Juice was drinking a cola outside the garage staring at the CSI's that had turned up to go over the remains of the burnt out minivan, the guys had gone off to find Weston whose address they had found and he had been left behind to take care of things at the garage.

However he was not doing a very good job of it, even he thought he would not manage to fuck this up and he knew that Clay was going to kill him if he did not manage to stop the CSI's from getting the evidence off the lot. Unser came up from behind him and handed him a large plastic cup, taking his bottle of coke from him. Juice glanced into the cup at the yellow coloured liquid within.

"What's this?"

He asked the cop as Unser poured what had been left of his coke into the cup and explained as he did what the chemo he was having done did to his bodily waste, turning radioactive he explained.

"I'm holding a cup of your piss."

"Yeah, now all I got to do is somehow spill it over the evidence they have collected without getting me arrested."

Juice handed him back his radioactive piss, he had had an idea grinning widely as he told Unser to wait over by the CSI's and to follow his lead. He shot over to where a car was parked while Unser ambled over to one of the CSI's. Both men barely leaping out of the way as the car Juice got into almost ran into them, Unser's cup of piss spilling all over the senior CSI guy but missed the evidence already collected all together.

As the poor guy who had got covered in Unser's piss staggered over to car that he and the other had come in to the scene, Unser dragged Juice into the office and handcuffed him to the chair before he killed him. Pulling his phone out of his pocket he put a call into Clay informing him of Juice's inability to stop the CSI's getting what they had come for.

xXx

The sons that had left with Clay earlier that day were parked at the side of a dirt road when Opie pulled up. They had been to Zobelle's house to find it empty and they were now going to check out Weston's. Leaving their bikes they headed up the slope to the house but before they got there they were stopped by Hale, who tried to stop them in their mission but they were not going to be stopped and as they were about to argue with him, the sound of guns shots rang out from inside the house, that Jax had already entered.

Thinking that Jax was in danger the men charged up the hill, Hale, Happy and Bobby going to the front door while the others Tig, Clay and Opie went round the back and started firing into a back window unaware that they were firing into the bedroom where Weston's two children were cowering with Jax as the bullets flew overhead.

"IT'S JUST A KID…..A KID."

Jax voice carried over the sounds of the bullets and the men who entered had the good grace to look ashamed as they searched the place from top to bottom trying to find something that would tell them where Weston and Zoebelle would be, Happy came out of a backroom holding a laptop.

"Found Weston's laptop but can't get in, password protected."

"We'll take it back to Teller-Morrow; get Juice to take a look at it."

xXx

It had not taken Juice long to find the information they had needed and as the guys wandered out to the van, Opie pulled him to one side for a word.

"Are you okay doing this Juice?"

"Course I am, Opie what they did to Otto and to Chibs they deserve what they have got coming their way. I want to be there and I want to see them die for what they have done."

"Opie…Juice come on, we got to go."

Both men moved out the door without another word as he retaliation against Zoebelle and Aryan Brotherhood was about to begin. They knew there would be bloodshed tonight, there were both AK's and shotguns in the back of the van and no doubt both would be used.


	27. Gilead

Juice glanced nervously around the exercise yard; he was sitting on one of the tables with Bobby leaning against it sitting on the seat as the sons stuck together for protection against the predators in the prison population. There had already been an altercation or two since they had been arrested after mistakenly charging into a Christian centre in Mendoza where they thought Zoebelle was talking at what they had thought had been a rally for the local Aryan Brotherhood. Instead they had interrupted him with a local church group who had gathered for a meal together, women and children had run from the building screaming at the sight of armed men in their midst.

He could see Jax stalking towards them through the yard, looking as menacing as he could at the other inmates who tried to cluster around him, in an attempt to intimidate him but Jax gave them no indication that their attempts to scare him was working, he projected the image of a confident hardened criminal with an ease that Juice could only envy.

The sound of a klaxon going off as the fenced gate to the yard was opened to admit Clay to the yard brought Juice's attention back to the others in the yard as Jax joined them just before Clay reached the table where they were all gathered, Clay sitting down almost wearily as the weight of their situation seemed to weigh down heavily on him.

"Rosen says the case is being held up, it may take some time for it to go to court."

"We need protection then, or none of us are going to make it to court."

Juice glanced sideways at his brothers, they all knew they were in serious shit the Aryans had put the word out that they were on their own and they were now in serious need of protection. Clay glanced around at the other prisoners who were watching their little group.

"I'm working on getting us some protection."

He stood up and nodded to Jax and the two men made their way over to the side of the exercise yard that seemed to be controlled by 'the family', a black gang that controlled a good half of what went on amongst the prison population.

Juice paired up with Happy as the prez and VP were doing what they could to get protection for their group, he felt like he was on show for all of the guys in the yard and he had seen some of the predatory looks of lust that had been glanced in his direction or at least until he had moved over to Happy, his presence alone seemed to be protecting Juice at the moment.

He was scared but knew enough not to show it, he had been in lockup before but normally only for a few hours and this was the first time that he had been in Stockton, he had heard from the others what it was like in here and Opie had told him some of what had happened when he had been doing his five year stretch for blowing up the truck yard but he knew that Opie had not told him everything about what had happened to him.

Jax and Clay wandered back over to them and the other guys were listening to what they were saying, he did not take much notice until the guys approached him by the looks on their faces he knew that something bad was about to happen.

xXx

Opie rubbed the oil on his hands off with a piece of old rag when he spotted his moms car entering the lot and pulling up outside the garage, his mom getting out of the car while his kids stayed in the backseat looking out at their father.

"What's going on Ma?"

"I'm going up to the cabin to make sure Piney's okay, so you need to step up and take care of your kids."

Turning back to the car she did not see her son's grimace at the thought of having to take care of his kids himself, he had enough on his plate at the moment with the guys in the slammer, the work in the garage had started to back up and the guys had only been gone for a few days. His mom turned back to him, pushing her grandkids ahead of her, she hugged them both and told them to be good for their father and then got back in the car and headed out looking for her ex old man.

Meanwhile Kenny and Ellie stared at their father, they did not really want to be at the garage, they both knew that their father did not want to be around them; after all if he had he would not have taken off not long after their mummy's funeral and left them with their grandmother.

xXx

Juice clutched the condoms nervously in his hand as he made his way towards the PC infirmary, he really did not want to do what he was about to do for the club, his ribs hurt where Tig had cracked a couple of them to get Juice in to the main infirmary so that he could then get into the PC area as arranged by Jax and Clay when they had made the arrangement with 'the family'. He had been told by Jax that all he had to do was to distract the snitch just long enough and then let the guys from 'the family', into the protected area so that they could give him the beat down of a lifetime.

He glanced nervously through the window in the door that led to the PC area, hoping against hope that the guy would not show but he was to be disappointed. Through the glass he could see the grinning face of the creep as he gazed back at Juice; he could see the guy positively slobbering at the idea of getting his hands on him.

Dion opened the door for him and Juice slipped through, nervously smiling at him shyly, backing up against the wall as Dion leaned into him, placing his arms on the wall either side of Juice's head.

"Name's Juice."

"Yes you are."

Dion purred as he leaned forward to kiss Juice, trapping the smaller man even more against the wall as he pushed his body up against him. He could feel Juice trembling and he smiled even wider, as he thought about what he was going to do to him.

Juice tried to pull back but he was trapped against the wall and as Dion pushed up against him, he gasped, he felt Dion's erection against his thigh and he realised with horror that he was bigger than Opie. He started to panic as he thought of Dion taking him and realised that if he did he would rip him apart if the guys did not get to him in time. As he felt the creep move in closer to kiss him, he found he was able to move as their bodies were no longer pressed against one another.

Juice ducked down and away from Dion as he wandered further into the infirmary, Dion following him like a love sick puppy as he eyed up the contours of Juice's ass, he licked his lips he really liked what he was seeing. So obsessed was he with ogling Juice's ass he almost missed what the smaller man was saying.

"Hey it's really nice in here, much better than gen pop."

"Ummmmm Hmm that it is."

Once more eying up the ass that he was about to fuck and fuck hard. He was already feeling the blood as it made its way to his penis. He noticed the condoms that Juice clutched nervously in his hand and noticed how tense he was especially when he grabbed his ass.

"You a bit tense Juicy, take a seat."

Juice nervously smiled again but sat on the bed as Dion moved behind him, he felt nervous at that but at least if he was sitting down the guy was not able to shove anything into his ass and that made him feel a little bit better, although he was praying like mad that the guys would get here soon and he could go back to his brothers out in the yard.

He jumped a little as he felt Dion's hands on his shoulders, gripping him as he started to massage the tension that he had in them, Juice had to admit to himself, it did feel good as he felt the tension start to disappear and started to relax. However he leapt to his feet as he suddenly felt the guy as he reached down and tried to grab his junk; backing up away from him Juice glanced into the bathroom, pointed to it as he suggested they move it somewhere more private.

"I'm a…..I'm a bit shy….you know?"

Juice stuttered as he moved further back from the guy, Dion grinned at his apparent nervousness as he thought how much he was going to enjoy riding him. Moving ahead of Juice, he entered the bathroom and dropped his pants, grabbing his own junk he started to masturbate as he lecherously eyed Juice.

"I…ah…I just got to go get the condoms, left them on the bed."

Juice moved back to the bed as Dion shouted at him to get a move on, he glanced once more through the window of the outer door but saw no one there. Sighing to himself, he knew he was going to have to take one for the club, the guys were not there but as he moved towards the bathroom, he spotted a face suddenly appear at the door and he breathed a sigh of relief. Heading for the door he let the Russell's guys in, they ran past him ignoring him, they were there for the snitch and they were to going to give the bastard a chance to call out for help.

Juice followed behind them and stood for a moment watching as they beat the living daylights out of Dion, he still had the condoms in his hand.

"So I take it you won't need these?"

Sparing him a look of disgust Russell's second in command, indicated to him to take a hike, as he watched his crew give the snitch a beating. Juice did not need to be told twice and he fled from the room as fast as he could just grateful that he had not had to take one for the club.


	28. Gilead Part 2

Juice lay on his stomach in a side ward of the prison infirmary, the pain of the stab wounds in his back were nothing but a dull throbbing pain which he would rather he could not feel at all. Everything had looked like it had gone to plan or at least from his end, he had got the door open for Russell's crew when he had been used as bait for the rat in PC and he had re-entered the exercise yard, happy that he had not had to take one for the club and had therefore been able to show his brothers in prison with him that he could get a job done without messing up in some way.

In his excitement at having got something done towards getting protection for their group he had not noticed the danger he was walking into until it was too late. He had been so distracted inside his head that he had not noticed at all that several members of the Aryan Brotherhood had somehow managed to surround him but had made it look like they were not doing so.

The guy in front of him suddenly thrust backwards with his body knocking fully into Juice who he knocked backwards towards a guy who had walked right up behind him, the shank in the guy's hand going in not once, twice but three times into his lower back, the pain had been unbelievable. He had thought it had been painful when Tig cracked his rib but that had been nothing to the pain he felt then.

He heard movement as someone entered the room and he hoped it was the nurse coming to give him some more pain meds that were beginning to wear off but to his horror and disgust, he saw it was the ATF bitch who had been coming after the club, the bitch who had tried to make it look like Opie was a rat and who was most likely the one responsible for Donna being killed. She had not pulled the trigger but she may as well have, it had been her trying to get Opie to turn on the club and making it look as though he had when he had in fact, not.

"Looks like it is pretty dangerous being a son in here. You were lucky apparently the shank missed all your vital organs, very lucky indeed."

Juice glared at the woman sitting on the bunk next to his, he could see the smirk and contempt that she felt for him and his brothers in her eyes and the look that said she would do whatever it took to bring SAMCRO down once and for all.

"Got nothing to say to you bitch."

"Tell me what the beef between Clay and Jax is? Seems they are not getting on as well as they should be, it in return is causing problems within the club. People are saying that SAMCRO is coming apart at the seams."

Juice glared at her, he was not going to give her any satisfaction in answering her, and he was not rat. As far as he was concerned the skanky assed bitch sitting on the bunk could go and swing for her answers she would get none from him.

"The only beef we got is with interfering ATK skanks who thinks they will take us down for something we have not done."

Turning his head and laying it down on his arms he ignored any further attempts of Stahl's to get any information out of him.

xXx

Opie was not feeling happy; he had not been able to help the club out when he had been asked to. It had looked as though everything was going to work out, he had been able to get a good amount of drugs that Trammel the cop on the sons payroll had asked for so he could set up the tyranny dealer that the family wanted inside Stockton so that they could take care of the bastard who had betrayed them, he did not know how he had but Opie did not care, all he cared about was sitting in Stockton waiting for someone to get them out.

As much as he worried about Jax and the others, it was Juice that he wanted out safety; the thought of his lover in that place unprotected and in danger was more than he could bear. He had had a bad feeling that something was not right but he put it down to the fact that Juice was in the one place he had hoped he would never be or if he had to be, then he would have been happier if he was in there with him protecting him from the prison predators who he knew would have seen Juice as an easy target. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he did not hear Gemma approach until she was standing right next to him.

"Opie I just got a call from Rosen, the boys are on their way home as we speak."

"Oh thank god."

"God had nothing to do with it."

Gemma stalked back to the office where Tara was sitting, waiting for the Jax and the others to return home to them. Opie despite his earlier fears and misgivings about what was going to happen suddenly felt much happier than he had, his lover was coming home, safe and sound.

xXx

Opie sat in the uncomfortable chair next to the hospital bed that his beloved lay in, when the others had got wearily out of the works van when they had returned to Charming, battered and weary after their stay in County he had not seen Juice and the earlier feelings of foreboding that had earlier threatened to overwhelm him returned in force.

It had not taken him long to find out what had happened to Juice but it had taken him a while before he could safety leave without it causing any problems or unwanted attention to the fact he was leaving.

Once he had left the clubhouse however it had not taken long before he arrived at St Thomas's and luckily the nurse on duty was one he had been at school with, she had not said a word as he made his way into the room where his lover now lay asleep. He had moved silently towards the chair not wanting to disturb Juice as he slept, all he wanted was to sit and watch him a while, to be able to reach out and make sure that he was really lying there, injured yes but alive and safe.

Tentatively he reached out and caressed the back of Juice's neck and head, lightly brushing his fingertips over Juice's skin, the contact making him feel a little better but not entirely, he wanted more than anything to take Juice in his arms and hug him close to never let go of him. His hand still lightly caressing the back of Juice's neck it was not long before he dozed off.

xXx

Juice groaned a little as he opened his eyes and felt the pain in his back; it was hurting more than it had yesterday before they had transported him from county. The trip had taken quite a while and it had been some time before he had been transferred to this room once he had arrived, he had not been considered a priority especially as he was being transported here from federal custody and the medical personal had not been particularly gentle in their movement of him.

As he became more aware of his surroundings he realised that he was not alone in the room as his eyes picked out the shape of a body sitting in the chair next to his bed and for a moment he felt panic but then he recognised the bear of a man sitting there and he smiled as he reached out a hand towards his lover.

"Hey Opie," he whispered to his lover as he grasped his hand.

Opie opened his eyes to see his lover staring back at him from the bed where he lay and he leaned forward to kiss the man hungrily on the lips, not taking any caution at all considering that anyone could walk in on them at any moment. Neither man seemed to care though nor was it in that moment that they realised that someone had looked taken that moment to look through the window of the door and saw the two of them kissing.


	29. Potlatch

It was quiet on the lot as Opie pulled in; he had just come from visiting Juice that morning at the hospital after he had spent the night with Lyla. He knew that he should not continue with the path he was taking, seeing both Lyla and Juice neither one knowing about the other but as usual he could not help himself.

As he walked into the clubhouse he could hear several of his brothers discussing something with the prospect Half sack and as he entered he spotted Bobby, Tig and Happy peering over the bar at the unfortunate prospect.

"Is it supposed to be that swollen?"

Happy asked as it peered in wonder at the prospects new ball. Half Sack peered at his now newly formed pair.

"Think so."

They look uneven," Tig told Half Sack as he also peered at the prospects new ball.

"One nut is always bigger than the other," Half Sack told him.

Tig shook his head as he undid his own trousers and groped himself.

"I don't know man; I think mine are equally huge."

"Hey buddy what's going on?"

Half Sack asked Opie as he approached the bar, he glanced down as the prospect asked his question spotting what the men had been discussing just before he entered the room. He sounded shocked and disgusted as he commented on the size of the ball saw.

"We shouldn't have to see that."

He grimaced, looking away from the scene in front of him, he heard bobby murmuring about the new ball in the background.

"I gather," he grinned at Bobby as he moved over to one of the many seats scattered around the main room of the clubhouse. The men all sat down as they continue to discuss their plans, Opie looking on at his brothers in wonderment.

"What's up?"

Bobby sat on one of the seats opposite him, watching his brother as he decided what to say to him. He was uncomfortable with Opie although he did not show it, he still trusted his brother but with everything that had gone on lately he was beginning to question the loyalty of each and every brother present not that he would ever make his point known at least not yet, not until his suspicions about different brothers made him unwary enough to bring it to the table.

At the moment his unease with Opie had to do with what he had witnessed at the hospital the day after they had been released from county, he had gone in to see Chibs and had planned to drop into see Juice when he had seen the two of them, Juice and Opie kissing through the door of Juice's hospital room but for now he would do nothing, just watch and wait to see where the relationship between the two men went and if at all it affected the future of the club and then but only then would he say anything.

"We need to take a look at this thing with Jax and Clay," he told Opie.

"Heard they got into it in county," Half Sack piped up.

"It was brutal." Happy put forward from where he was sitting.

"Shits have been brewing for months…..since Donna."

"You think this has got to do with Donna's death?" Opie asked Bobby.

"No it started way before that," Tig told Opie.

"Jax is pushing for change."

"Gotta sort it before it gets out of control," Bobby told his brothers.

"I'll talk to Jax," Opie told his brothers, "he'll tell me if he thinks he wants to help."

Opie spots Jax as he walks into the room and they all change the subject as he approached them.

"What's up?" Jax asks them as he reaches them.

"We just were discussing the prospects new ball."

"Charming….Where's Clay?"

"Not here yet," Bobby tells the VP.

xXx

Opie with Half Sack and Happy were sitting at a table in Lin's restaurant close to the table that Clay and Tig were sitting at conversing with Lin over some gun deal. Opie watched as the three men seemed to get on but he could feel the tension in the air, he heard parts of what was being said but he was not close enough to hear everything.

He saw Lin signal to one of his men as Clay and Tig got up to leave and saw the man pull someone forward towards the Sons; it was Chucky the guy they had protected for a short time when he had been released from Stockton.

"A gift for you," Lin tells Clay and his men.

"What do we want with him?" Clay asked the Chinese business man.

"Clay please….if you don't take me…they're gonna kill me."

Chucky was desperate he knew that Lin no longer had any use for him and therefore if the sons did not take him he knew that he was going to end up with a bullet hole in his head. He made as if to step forward and Lin's man punched him hard in the gut, doubling the smaller man over as the air was forced from his lungs. He clutched his stomach wincing in pain and heard the SaA Tig speak up for him on his behalf.

"Hey, we'll take him. He can do the books at Caracara, free up Bobby."

Clay looked at Tig and shrugged, the rest of the men following him out of the restaurant as the two men continued to discuss the business at hand, Opie heard Stahl's name being mentioned.

"That bitch will tell you anything to get her own way," he told the rest of the sons. He heard his phone ringing in his pocket and pulled it out flipping it open as he listened to the person talking on the phone. Snapping it shut he approached Clay telling him he had to go to Caracara.

xXx

He had not long arrived at Caracara and was comforting Lyla as Bobby and Jax discussed things with Luanne. Lyla was still clearly by what had happened and he hugged the woman closer as he comforted her.

"Everything is going to be alright Lyla, I promise you."

"I hope you are right Opie but I am so scared right now. What if they come after me or after Piper? You can't watch us all the time Opie."

Opie pulled the woman even closer as the woman continued to shake a little, the shock of what happened gradually wearing off. As he felt the shakes stop he kissed her on the forehead before he got up to join Bobby and Jax where they were still talking to the Caracara boss.

"She okay?" Bobby asked Opie as he approached the trio.

"Yeah she fine." Opie told Bobby looking at Jax as he continued. "We know who did this?"

"The shit that is missing, got to be Caruso."

Opie nodded as he listened to what Jax had to say, his decision clear in his eyes.

"Let's go then."

Opie headed towards the door as the other two men followed him, before they had gone far Luanne's voice called out.

"HEY WHAT TIME DOES GEMMA WANTS US TO BE AT HER PLACE FOR THE POTLATCH."

Jax groaned as he remembered what his ma had said earlier to him.

"Gemma's having a potlatch, she wants all of us there."

"I got Kenny and Ellie." Opie told him, he did not want to go to Gemma's dinner tonight, all he wanted to do when he finally got home was to relax at home with his kids and Lyla.

"Bring them." Jax told him.

"Lyla? She has been helping me out with the kids."

Jax was taken back by Opie's words as was Bobby. He had not thought that Opie would be looking at spending time with another woman not so soon after Donna's death.

"You serious about her?" he asked his brother and oldest friend.

Opie shrugged as he considered Jax's question.

"Dunno, the kid's like her."

He shrugged again as he thought about how Lyla interacted with his kids.

"You hitting her?" Bobby asked.

Opie looked at the older man, a little disgusted at his question.

"No we are just hanging out," Opie told the older man.

"Dude she's a porn star."

"Your point?"

"My point, she is a porn star, you gotta hit it."

Jax had started to grin as he listened to the exchange between the two men, he was laughing internally at what looked like Bobby's fascination with porn stars and his inability it seemed to not understand why Opie was not getting any sex from Lyla, if only he knew the truth Jax thought to himself. He knew however that Bobby was one of the few members of the club who would not have understood the relationship between his friend and Juice.

"What would you know about Porn stars?" he asked the older of the two men.

"Just what I heard."

Opie shook his head as he walked away from the two men, his thoughts turned to Juice as he continued to listen to the other two as Bobby stammered trying to explain to Jax how he knew about Porn stars, it was amusing to hear the older man stutter from embarrassment and as much as he liked Bobby he could not help wandering about the direction that his questioning had been heading. The older man had been a bit edgy around him for the last few days and he wondered what he had done to warrant his caginess, he wondered if the business with Stahl was still bothering him but until he knew otherwise he was not going to say anything.

Heading outside he spotted Chucky looking over the bikes and swore under his breath, he had forgotten about the man.


	30. Potlatch Part 2

A/N: I know a few of you were disappointed in the last chapter that there was no interaction between Opie and Juice but there will be more in this one. With Juice in the hospital still it makes it difficult for there to be too much interaction and I wanted to show Opie's mind-set in this chapter over his blossoming relationship with Lyla. Although Opie loves Juice he is still not comfortable with the club knowing which is one of the reasons why he is with Lyla and why he is still questioning his own sexuality even after all this time.

* * *

Opie with Bobby and Jax waited patiently outside of Caruso's porn studio, they had wondered how they were going to do this, they knew that they would have to get past Caruso's bodyguard and although all three of them knew they could take the big guy on quite easily they knew the ensuring ruckus would alert Caruso and he would either destroy or hide any evidence that he had been the one involved in the break-in at their studio. It had been Bobby who had come up with the idea of using Chucky as bait, an idea that had made Opie a little uncomfortable as he thought about the last time that the club had used someone as bait.

His thoughts were of his boyfriend Juice at that moment who was he knew sitting in a hospital bed bored out of his skull, he knew this because of the time he had spent with him the night before. It had been good to spend some time with Juice although they had to be careful not only in case someone caught them but because Juice's injuries meant that they had not been able to do much other than kiss and cuddle.

Very gently cuddles as Opie had discovered, when he had moved his hand down Juice's back while they had been making out and brushed against one of Juice's wounds which although healed was still causing his lover a great deal of pain.

The disturbance of the door to the studio suddenly banging open brought Opie back to the present and he spotted Chucky running quickly out of the door being pursued by Caruso's big bodyguard.

"Let's go,"

He heard Jax say and the three men made their way into the building, two scantily clad women were sitting in chairs in the reception and Jax told them to get out as they made their way to Caruso's office, Jax entering first as their soon to be victim spotted them. The man pulled a gun out and Opie grabbed the scumbag director by the back of his jacket and pulled him backwards throwing the man to the floor as he and Jax had struggled for the gun, as soon as the man was on the floor Opie placed his huge foot on his throat to keep him in place on the floor sneering down at him as he struggled to breathe.

"How's that feel you dead bitch?"

Bobby and Jax quickly found the items they were looking for as Caruso continued to watch them from his place on the floor under Opie's boot, his guard re-joining them but unable to help his boss. As Opie kept Caruso on the ground the images of Lyla and Juice both dead and battered because of this creep came to his mind both hurt because of scum like the man under his boot and pressed down some more onto the struggling man throat, as the creep began to spew insults and threats at them, Opie glaring at him menacingly as addressed him. He knew he could not openly tell the scumbag to stay away from Juice but Lyla on the other hand he could protect.

"Lyla's with me now….you touch her….call her even think about her, I will kill you."

xXx

It was a short ride to Laroy's bar down on Water street but to Opie it seemed to go on forever, he wanted to go to the hospital to see Juice but he knew he couldn't until later. Going now would alert the rest of the club to something more going on between the two men other than friendship and he did not want the club to know, not only that although he loved Juice more than he had ever loved anyone, more in fact than he had loved Donna if he was truthful with himself he was still questioning his sexuality even after all this time the two of them had been together.

Before he knew they were pulling up at Laroy's place, the other two getting off their bikes as he hopped out of the van Chucky beside him grinning in his over friendly way as the smaller man followed the bikers eagerly into the bar, the girl behind the bar looked up and headed for the phone as they made their way towards the back room she looked sullen and they figured it was because they were in the bar.

It was not until they had reached the back room an entered it that they realised their mistake, the room was full of Mayans and Opie scanned the room looking for anything that would allow them to make their exit without any problems but he knew they wouldn't make it especially when they were ambushed in the hallway on their way back out by more Mayans who seemed to come out of nowhere. He was the first to hit the ground as both he and Bobby were taken down first and from his place on the floor he could see Jax being thrown against the wall a gun pressed against his chest to keep him still.

Although the danger they were in was severe the thoughts that went through his head were mainly about Juice and Lyla and what their death especially his would mean to the two of them. Opie felt hands on his body as he was hauled up and then pushed and dragged back into the room they had just exited quickly from. He and Jax were flung into seats at one table and Bobby was placed at another a little ways away from them, their phones taken away from them and placed on another table near them.

xXx

At the hospital Juice was sitting watching the television again, it was all he had to do while he waited for his injuries to heal, he had his phone but he kept it on silent. He knew he shouldn't have it with him because he knew that it caused problems with some of the machinery in the hospital but he needed it just in case someone tried to harm him and he needed to get ahold of the club. Well that and the fact it was the only way he and Opie could keep in contact without anyone knowing.

He smiled to himself as he thought about the night before, he and Opie had spent a few hours together before Opie had had to go home and look after his kids. His lover had seemed quieter for some reason than he normally was and Juice feared for a moment or two if Opie was no longer feeling the same for him that he felt for him. He knew that Opie was still having problems and questioning his sexuality and he wanted nothing more than to help his lover with his problems but he was more scared of pushing him away if he tried.

Juice sighed to himself, he knew that Opie's dilemma could tear them apart and prayed that did not happen. Opie was not the first guy that Juice had been romantically involved with but he was the first one that he felt this deeply about and he dared to think love, he had always thought that love was for children who did not know the reality of life and could not see the foolishness of it yet but the moment he had met Opie he knew that love for the first time was real.

Juice shivered as he felt something cold go through him like someone walking over his grave and he suddenly felt that his lover was in danger, he reached for his phone which he kept hidden in the small cabinet by his bed in case any of the nurses spotted it and confiscated it and pressed the number for Opie's phone.

He waited impatiently as it rang and rang, Opie not answering it, he felt himself get more and more anxious, and he knew that Opie was in danger. He could not get rid of the feeling of terrible danger to his lover and wanted nothing more to get out of this hospital bed to go and find him but he knew he would be of no help to him and also he was weary of alerting the club to what was going on between the two men. He felt so helpless at that moment knowing there was nothing he could do.

xXx

It had not taken long for Alveraz to make his appearance at the club and even less time for Jax to piss the man off with his arrogance. Opie had internally shook his head as his friend and VP had goaded the Mayan prez and this was one time when he had wanted to shake some sense into Jax but he knew he couldn't and he also knew that Jax had to keep a show of face to Alveraz.

As soon as the Mayans had released them, the men had made their way back to Charming and Opie excused himself for a while telling the other two that he would meet them at the Gemma's house for the potlatch, he needed to see Juice. Not just to reassure himself that the man was okay but to ease his own nerves although he would never admit it, he had thought that he and his brothers were going to die earlier that day especially when Jax squared off to Alveraz.

He entered Juice's hospital room to the delight of Juice whose face light up at the sight of him before he could even utter a word of welcome, Opie's hands had clasped his face and he was kissing the smaller man deeply Juice leaning into the kiss as he kissed him back almost as eagerly as he was kissing him.

The kiss seemed to go on for an eternity before he pulled back and stared into the eyes of the smaller man, resting his forehead on Juice's staring deeply into his eyes as he whispered to him.

"Fuck, I missed you today."

"I missed you too," Juice whispered back.

Opie sat on the side of Juice's bed as he continued to hold him, just grateful to hold the man on the bed in his arms for a few minutes before he settled down into the chair at the side of Juice's bed just in case anyone came in and caught them. He still held onto Juice's hands he was reluctant to let go of the man and Juice sensed this.

"What happened today Opie?"

"What do you mean?"

"Something happened, I can feel it and earlier today I had the dreadful feeling that you were in deadly danger. I tried to phone you but you didn't answer."

Opie thought back to earlier in the day when he along with Jax and Bobby had been held by the Mayans, he had heard his phone ringing at the same time that Jax's had been had thought that it had been Clay or someone trying to find out where the three of them were. He had not even thought that it might have been Juice calling him.

"Just some problems with the Mayans." He told the hacker.

"Everything is alright now though."

"Yeah baby everything is alright."

Opie leaned forward to kiss Juice again, he didn't have much time he knew, he could see the hands on the clock on the wall and they read about 6:20 and he knew he had to go soon if he was going to make it to Gemma's Potlatch but he did not want to leave Juice just right now. He groaned as he thought about leaving he wanted to stay with Juice tonight but knew he couldn't, he kissed Juice again.

"I gotta go; Gemma is expecting everyone at her house for dinner. I've got the kids tonight so I won't be able to get back till tomorrow."

"That's alright Opie, I know that the kids are important to you, how are they? Is Lyla with them at the moment?"

Opie looked at Juice a little startled; he did not think that Juice knew about him and Lyla, he thought that he had kept the fact that he had been seeing her quiet and that Juice did not know. His lover saw the almost guilty look in his eyes and smiled a little, he did not like the idea of sharing Opie with anyone but he knew the front that Opie was keeping up for the club and besides he liked Lyla she was a nice woman despite being a porn star, he had met her at the studio a few times.

"It's alright Opie I know about Lyla and I like her, she is good for you. Now go on before you're late for Gemma's dinner."

Opie kissed Juice again as deeply as he had when he had entered the room and left to spend the rest of the evening with the rest of their family. He closed the door to Juice's room quietly not glancing back into the room and therefore did not see the lone tear that slid down his boyfriends face at the thought of him and Lyla being together.


End file.
